CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution moved by Chief Minister MK Stalin urging the union government to withdraw the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in toto since this Bill would severely affect the minority Muslim community. All political parties including the principal opposition party AIADMK supported the resolution, whereas BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan led her party MLAs into a walkout ahead of the resolution being put to vote to express disagreement.
"People practicing all faiths are living in harmony in India and the Constitution has given rights to people to practice their religions. Popular governments have the duty to preserve this right. However, contrary to this, the union government introduced the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in August last to amend the 1995 Waqf Act which would severely affect Muslim community. As such, this House urges the union government to withdraw this Bill in toto," the resolution moved by the CM said.
Charging that the amendments proposed in the Bill intend to increase the interference of the union government into the administration of the Waqfs, Stalin said, "The Tamil Nadu government has cleared told the JPC on September 30, 2024 and the DMK MPs - A Raja and MM Abdulla have registered their views strongly with the JPC. Not only the DMK but also many key political parties have also registered their protest over the amendment Bill."
However, the JPC has rejected the amendments proposed by the opposition parties and the union cabinet also approved the decisions of the JPC.
"In this backdrop, this amendment bill can be introduced in Parliament at any time. As such, given the urgency in this matter, it is our duty to register our opposition to this amendment Bill," he added.
"The Wakf Amendment Bill 2024 has many clauses which - discriminates against minorities, rejects religious freedom, violates the Constitution, goes against the objectives of the Wakf, contrary to the verdicts of the courts, remains confusing and unnecessary. In due course, these amendments will paralyse the Wakf institutions and thus we have to oppose this," the CM said moving the resolution.
The CM said India is a country which sees unity in diversity and the people have been living in harmony. Despite the presence of many races, languages, faiths, cultures, etc people of the country are living with the feeling that they are all Indians.
"The government which is in power should uphold this spirit. However, all activities of the BJP-led coalition government have ulterior motives - whatever they do, they do it to betray a particular section of the society," the CM charged.
Stating that there are many reasons for opposing this amendment Bill, the CM said "Through these amendments, the infrastructure of the Central Waqf Council and State Waqf Boards would be changed and thus the government's control over these bodies would increase. This, in turn, would infringe on the autonomy of the Waqf institutions."
The CM said according to an amendment proposed, "Any Waqf property identified or declared as government property, whether before or after the amendment, will no longer be considered a Waqf property. This clause gives the powers to reclassify the Waqf properties."
Another amendment says only a person who practices Islam for not less than five years alone could declare a property as Waqf. This clause has caused an apprehension that the Waqf properties created by non-Muslims could be made invalid. The CM also charged that Bill proposes to create separate property boards for two sects in Islam.
The CM also said, according to another amendment, the elections to State Waqf Board members and chairpersons have been abolished. Also, this Bill mandates inclusion of two non-Muslims as members of the State Waqf Boards. "This is interfering into the religious affairs of Muslims," he added.
Stalin stated that deleting the Section 40 of the Act would remove the power of the Waqf Board in identifying its properties and transfers this power to the government. "This is violative of Article 26 of the Constitution," he added.
Stating that the Bill also proposes to remove the 'Waqf by user clause' from the Waqf Act. "This will effectively eliminate the convention of recognising Waqf properties based on their long-term usage. This has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims deeply," he added.
Besides, it is proposed that the Limitation Act would be made applicable to the Waqf properties. Also the trusts and charitable institutions cannot be considered as Waqf entities. "The above clauses are the key reasons for Muslims opposing this amendment bill and the union government has not considered these reasons," he added.
Recalling that the Citizenship Amendment Act betrayed the Muslims and the Sri Lankan Tamils, the union government has been betraying the non-Hindi speaking States on financial issues. The NEET and National Education Policy are affecting the downtrodden people. "In this line, the Waqf (Amendment) Bill has been introduced. Since it betrays the Muslim community, we have to oppose this strongly and I am moving this resolution for that," the CM added.
Stalin said the Waqf Act was enacted in 1954 and it was amended in 1995, 2013. The BJP-led union government introduced another Bill to further amend this Act on August 8, 2024. Most of the parties including the DMK strongly opposed these amendments. Following this, this Bill was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee.
