Any nation that truly wishes to be a democracy worthy of its people must ensure its a nation where there is one law for all, a nation that assures justice for all, a nation that aspires and inspires greatness in every strata of society. To do that, a nation must rid itself of ill-conceived anti-national legislation designed to exploit its own people.
India has a legacy of mindless corrupt legislation that it has allowed to disenfranchise millions from all sections of society. Be it the unconstitutional A370 in Jammu and Kashmir, to the Waqf Act, 1995. The latter was introduced to appease to a religious group to ensure that Congress secured it vote bank. Can you imagine a law that is designed to give a religious group total power to steal any asset it wants and do so legally! The community in question, Muslim. I am appalled that the Muslim community accepted such an act in the first place. Surely as a community they have some sense of morality and ethics that tells them that an act that gives them such power over other religious groups is nothing short of corrupt. How can a faith that promote itself as peaceful and pious, accept such grotesque legislation that undermines the majority of citizens in the nation?
I was therefore heartened to learn that PM Modi, finally, has brought to parliament the ‘The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024’.However, in my opinion it fails to address the elephant in the room. The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 8, 2024. It amends the Waqf Act, 1995. The Act regulates waqf property in India and defines waqf as an endowment of movable or immovable property for purposes considered pious, religious, or charitable under Muslim law. Every state is required to constitute a Waqf Board to manage waqf. The Bill renames the Act to ‘United Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995’. i.e. Waqf will persist, albeit in a slightly altered state.
I am not in favour of this piecemeal process to an amendment. The reason why the total removal of A370 worked is because it was just that, ‘total removal’. The proposed amendment to Waqf still maintains the central concept of inequality. Inequality where one faith is granted unprecedented power and control over all other faiths.
Given the outrage from all sectors of society the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 has invited views and suggestions from the public, NGOs, experts, stakeholders and institutions. It’s given a window of 15days during which citizens of India can voice their opinions. I know those in favour of keeping Waqf are very well prepared and resourced. They will no doubt put in multiple presentations from hundreds of their networked organisations. I just hope other communities are also better organised and seek for the removal of this unethical unjust unacceptable and unconstitutional piece of legacy legislation.
My advice to the Joint Committee would be very simple:
Abolish the Waqf Act of 1995 in its totality.
- Abolish all Waqf Boards in every state.
- All assets that have been secured by Waqf under the provisions of the said act should immediately become the property of the Government.
- Set up a national commission to look into how best to re-distribute the seized assets and how best to compensate those who were exploited.
There is precedent within the amendment bill where it statesthat where government property was declared as waqf: ‘that any government property identified as waqf will cease to be so’. i.e. If the bill will at a stroke bring back all government property, then why should the same logic not apply to all other assets stolen under Waqf?
The anti-nationals who subscribe to their western paymasters no doubt will use this as ammunition to undermine the nation and create anarchy. However, sometimes a nation must bear such hostilities in order to bring justice to the whole of society.
No one said One Nation, One Law and One People was going to be easy. It’s for all Indians to recognise that it is in their interest to jettison unconstitutional and unjust legislation. How the Muslim community responds will become a defining moment of their integrity, honesty and allegiance.
