What’s the tearing hurry to amend the Waqf Act?

The BJP’s undying love for Muslims is no state secret, but in the Modi years, this community has been at the receiving end of some very special attention from the ruling party. A notable feature of this attention has been the various attempts to ‘reform’ Muslims, their personal laws and other legislation that impinges on their status as citizens.

Take for instance the Citizenship Amendment Act, or the Uniform Civil Code, or the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, a.k.a. the triple talaq law. Or now the apparent haste to pass a Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

Of the many jihads Indian Muslims are supposedly waging against the hapless Hindus of India, ‘land jihad’ is one. There is more in that arsenal, of course: ‘love jihad’, ‘vote jihad’, ‘thook jihad’… The colourful vocabulary has been legitimised by the party’s brass and given a hyperreal dimension on social media.

On 8 August, when the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju shared a story that had been circulating widely. In 2022, Raj Gopal, a resident of Tiruchendurai village in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy district, went to register the sale of his 1.2 acre plot of land. He was told this land was not his to sell in the first place, that it belonged to the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board. He was further informed that his entire village was Waqf property and that he would need an NOC from the Waqf Board’s Chennai office before he could proceed.

What has gone largely unreported in media is the refutation of this story by the TN Waqf Board, which apparently even issued a press release with clarifications and supporting documents. “The land in question is recorded in waqf board records as inaam (gift) waqf,” clarified A.S. Fatima Muzaffar, member, Tamil Nadu Waqf Board. “When this issue came to light, the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board provided all the documents related to the village to the government and administration.”

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 provides for the renaming of the Waqf Act, 1995, as the Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act (UMEED). It is currently under review by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), but the disregard for objections from opposition MPs suggests the government wants to ride roughshod over dissent and make haste with the passage of the bill.

A smear campaign has been run over the past five or so years on social media, especially through WhatsApp forwards, to paint the waqf boards — there are 32 of them in India in various states — as scheming land sharks. It could be a house, a shop, a piece of land… the story goes that if the waqf board lays claim to a property, it is practically impossible to contest it.

Ironically, though, the waqf board itself struggles with illegal encroachment on its properties. An RTI filed with the Central Waqf Council on 20 July 2020 revealed that 18,259 waqf properties and 31,594 acres of land are under illegal occupation across the country. Government departments or agencies occupy 1,342 properties and 31,594 acres of land. These numbers exclude data from Gujarat, Telangana and the Shia Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh.

While the stories of land grab by the waqf boards are hugely exaggerated and now have a life of their own, neutral observers do agree that all is not well with the functioning of the boards. Government officials and board members are accused of profiting from illegal/ impermissible sale and transfer of waqf properties. So, even well-meaning critics acknowledge the need for reforms, but the government is pushing for changes in the law because it has its own axe to grind.

For example, the narrative that the 30 waqf boards in the country are the third largest real estate owners after the Railways and Indian defence establishments is mischievous disinformation, says former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, who also served as a waqf commissioner for Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Quoting official statistics in a conversation with lawyer and MP Kapil Sibal, Quraishi pointed out that temples in just the two states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh own 900,000 acres of land, whereas waqf properties across the country occupy 600,000 acres.

Kamal Farooqui, a chartered accountant, said in the same discussion with Sibal that he had audited the accounts of several waqf boards and reported on discrepancies and irregularities. What prevents state governments from taking action against these waqf boards, he asked. After all, the chairmen of most of these boards and most members too continue to be appointed or nominated by the government. Illegal sales or transfers of tenancy are not possible, he argues, without complicity between government officials and board members.

Farooqui maintains that the law of the land, applied in good conscience, can bring offenders to justice. “But this government is not interested in ending corruption. The intention of the new Bill is to empower the government to grab waqf properties, humiliate Muslims and destroy institutions doing some good for the Muslim community.”

It is common knowledge that the government has made drastic cuts in scholarships and grants to Muslim students and institutions, which lend further credence to Farooqui’s allegations.

The government claims that the amendments aim to make the waqf management more transparent and ensure women’s representation on these bodies. It says the new bill is meant to benefit Muslims, especially poor Muslims and women.

However, Muslims have never asked for amendments to the Waqf Act, 1995. In 2010, when the government proposed amendments, the Muslim community resisted. Eventually, the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2013 was passed with provisions ensuring at least two female members on a waqf board. Currently, the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board has a female chairperson, and women have led or served as board members in other states, including Delhi.

The proposed amendments

Among the 40-odd amendments proposed in the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, are the following highlights:

• The Bill proposes to change the composition of the Central Waqf Council and waqf boards to include non-Muslim members

• The survey commissioner has been replaced by the collector, granting him powers to conduct surveys of waqf properties

• Government property identified as waqf will cease to be waqf; the collector will determine ownership of such properties

• Sec. 40 of the Waqf Act, 1995/2013, which gives the waqf board the authority to determine the legality/ authenticity of waqf properties, has been removed; in effect, this amendment will make it easier to illegally occupy waqf properties

The JPC deliberations on the amendment bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 8 August, have reportedly been acrimonious, with Opposition members questioning its constitutional validity, the government’s intention and the practical implications of the amendments. Their fears are not misplaced.