NEW DELHI: Days after the Centre notified the Waqf (Amended) Act, 2025, as law, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to launch a nationwide awareness campaign from April 20 to May 20 to counter Opposition parties accused of spreading misinformation about the Act.
A national workshop was held at the party's central office on Thursday, with party national president, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju, and nearly 200 office-bearers from the party's various fronts in attendance. The campaign will focus on the poll-bound states like Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and others.
Party national president JP Nadda and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju both provided detailed explanations of the Waqf (Amended) Act at the workshop, educating members on how to conduct a campaign regarding the new Waqf law, which came into effect on April 8.
They equipped the party leaders to reach out the Pasmanda (backward) Muslims across the country, more elaborately in the poll-bound states and others, telling them that the Modi government has introduced the Waqf Act with an aim to bring much-needed relief and justice to those who were impacted by illegal land acquisitions.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has chalked out a month-long comprehensive outreach named the “ Waqf Reforms Public Awareness “ campaign engaging all its MPs( both the Houses), ministers(both cabinet and MoS), workers, and office-bearers of all the seven fronts, including the Minority Morcha.
Notably, this newspaper has carried a story a few days ago about the BJP outreach being planned on the Waqf reforms across the country.
At the beginning of workshop, Nadda advised that the people of Pasmanda Muslims and others should know about the benefits of reforms in the Waqf and how it has ensured the rights and representation of women and poor in its functioning and accountability in transparent ways.
“Dispel the rumours of Opposition created on the Waqf Act. The Muslims must be educated with the facts to expose the Opposition’s misleading stand on it as part of their politics of appeasement”, Nadda reportedly remarked at the workshop.
He asserted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is determined to make Pasmanda Muslims and women stakeholders in management and welfare programmes of the Waqf with transparent and efficient management of its properties.
As party sources said, Nadda, highlighting the new Waqf law, asserted that it would help utilise Waqf properties for the welfare of poor Muslims and women. Adding that the new law would free these assets from the control of a small but influential section of people and open them for the minority community's overall benefit.
Minority affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju also dwelt upon every aspect of the Act, giving enough information on every point related to the Waqf system in order to counter Opposition allegations.
Rijiju in a post after the workshop said that he discussed the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, highlighting its provisions, reforms and the rights it provides to the beneficiaries. “This is an important step towards transparency, accountability and justice”, he remarked also.
As part of the BJP political strategy, the Waqf Reforms Public Awareness campaign will run from April 20 to May 20 across the country to make the benefits of the Waqf (Amendment) Act public, inform the Pasmanda Muslims in better ways and counter the opposition's criticism of it.
The BJP engaged the members of Waqf boards from BJP-ruled states at the workshop to involve them in the campaign across the Pasmanda and other Muslim dominated areas at local levels. It was also informed the party leaders at workshop to highlight that the presence of non-Muslims in the Waqf Council and boards has been ensured only about management of properties and has nothing to do with religion.
The outreach initiative will engage all BJP Members of Parliament, including Union Ministers and party office-bearers, deployed to their respective constituencies. Their mandate would be to actively engage with the public and generate awareness about the revised Waqf legislation.
The BJP has nearly 10 lakh active members who would also be engaged in spreading right information on the Waqf at their local levels in addition to other leaders and office-bearers.
A particular emphasis will be placed on outreach in Muslim-majority Pasmanda communities, where the party aims to build broader support. A senior BJP leader involved in the campaign planning told this newspaper, “We are entering a crucial electoral phase. The aim is to not only mobilise support but also to inform the electorate about the long-term advantages of these reforms, especially in areas where misinformation has historically clouded public understanding”.
Party strategists believe that the reform could strike a chord with economically disadvantaged Muslim communities, many of whom have historically felt sidelined by existing Waqf boards.
Sources further added that the party will hold press conferences and meetings with members of Muslim society, distribute literature prepared on the Waqf Act in Urdu as fact sheets, and engage several local Muslim religious bodies to dispel myths created on the Act by Opposition with the support of official documents and other ways.
The BJP has assigned general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agrawal and its minority wing president Jamal Siddiqui among others to ensure the success of this campaign through proper execution from April 20 to May 20.