Under the guise of reform, the government’s latest move targets Muslim institutions with suspicion, politicises religious trusts, and deepens India’s communal fault lines.
On April 3, 2025, India’s Lok Sabha passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill—another ominous milestone in the BJP’s increasingly unapologetic agenda of communal authoritarianism. Ostensibly framed as a reform to improve transparency and curb corruption in the management of Muslim charitable assets, the bill does nothing of the sort. Instead, it tears through a centuries-old tradition of community-managed religious endowments and replaces it with state surveillance, control, and forced communal integration.
To understand the real impact of this legislation, one must cut through the buzzwords of “accountability” and “inclusivity” and look at what the bill actually does.
What the Bill Changes — and Why It’s Dangerous
At its core, the Waqf (Amendment) Bill mandates the inclusion of non-Muslims on state and central Waqf boards and grants the government sweeping powers to assess and decide the ownership of Waqf properties. In one stroke, the BJP government has moved to dilute Muslim control over religious assets and opened the door to bureaucratic overreach.
This isn’t reform—it’s encroachment.
Traditionally, Waqf properties are donations made by Muslims for religious, educational, or charitable purposes. These are not state assets. They are endowed for the benefit of the community, governed by Islamic principles and administered by boards of Muslim members who understand both the religious and community dimensions of their role.
By forcing non-Muslim participation—where no such reciprocal requirement exists in Hindu temple trusts or Sikh gurdwaras—the BJP has, once again, signaled that Muslims must surrender their institutional autonomy to the state, or risk being labelled corrupt, incapable, or worse.
A Pattern of Sectarian Legislation
This bill doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s the latest in a series of legislative attacks on Muslim autonomy under Modi’s second and third terms.
- In 2019, the government revoked Article 370, dismantling Jammu and Kashmir’s special status without local consent, and reduced the Muslim-majority region to a federal territory.
- In 2020, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) fast-tracked citizenship for non-Muslims from neighboring countries, effectively redefining Indian citizenship on religious lines.
- In 2023 and 2024, various state governments controlled by the BJP pushed forward “anti-conversion” and “bulldozer justice” policies that disproportionately targeted Muslims.
Now, with the Waqf bill, the BJP turns its focus to institutional expropriation.
It’s not just about land and administration. It’s about control. It’s about narrative. It’s about who gets to be Indian on their own terms—and who must beg for legitimacy.
Not listening to Professional Voices
Ironically, the bill also ignores the very voices calling for sensible reform. Zafar Sareshwala, a prominent Muslim businessman and former Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, has long argued for professionalising Waqf management—not communalising it.
In 2022 and again in 2024, he publicly called for bringing in expert asset managers, auditors, and legal professionals to unlock the immense value of Waqf lands for genuine community benefit. “Waqf boards should function like modern trusts,” he said, “with full transparency, regular audits, and corporate governance standards.”
But instead of heeding such mature and constructive proposals, the BJP has chosen to impose ideological diktats from above—using suspicion rather than professionalism as its organizing principle.
If the government were serious about reform, it could have mandated that board appointments be based on qualification and integrity, not religion. It could have encouraged independent audits and digitisation of land records. It could have implemented fixed tenures, conflict of interest clauses, and mandatory asset evaluations.
It could have empowered the community instead of alienating it.
Voices of Concern: A Chorus of Resistance
The bill has drawn sharp criticism from opposition leaders, legal experts, and civil society organisations.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge asked a pointed question in Parliament:
“Why should Waqf boards be forced to include non-Muslims when other religious trusts are not? This is not reform. This is targeting.”
Rahul Gandhi called the bill a “tool of institutional erasure,” accusing the BJP of “weaponising governance to crush Muslim self-reliance.”
Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said:
“It is difficult for people like us to accept this bill. The intent is not administrative—it is ideological.”
Mehbooba Mufti was even more scathing:
“The BJP is running this country like Zia-ul-Haq ran Pakistan—rigid, theocratic, and full of paranoia against minorities.”
Even outside the political arena, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board issued a rare emergency statement calling the bill a “blatant assault on religious freedom” and urged citizens to challenge it in court.
The Road Ahead: What Could Be Done
The BJP has the numbers to pass this bill through the Rajya Sabha. But the struggle isn’t only parliamentary—it’s moral, legal, and democratic.
To de-escalate the crisis it has created, the government could take the following steps:
- Drop the requirement for non-Muslim board members. Replace it with a merit-based system of appointments open to professionals with relevant experience, regardless of religion.
- Introduce transparency reforms. Mandate third-party audits, digital property records, and public reporting of all transactions.
- Establish an independent Waqf ombudsman. This would allow grievances to be addressed outside of political interference.
- Invite civil society participation. Community trusts, Islamic scholars, and urban planners should all have a seat at the table.
But that would require humility—a quality sorely lacking in a government more interested in dominance than dialogue.
A Larger Crisis of Nationhood
India’s pluralism is not simply its greatest strength—it is its founding promise. That promise is being broken, piece by piece, by a regime that sees difference as weakness and secularism as betrayal.
In recent years, Muslims have been called infiltrators, rioters, jihadis, and more. Their homes have been demolished. Their voices stifled. Now, even their religious charities are under siege.
This isn’t about transparency. It’s about intimidation.
This isn’t about inclusion. It’s about infiltration.
And above all, it’s not about reform. It’s about revenge—against a community that dares to exist outside the BJP’s Hindu-nationalist imagination.
The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill should send chills down the spine of every Indian who believes in liberty, equality, and fraternity. Because once a government normalises the takeover of one community’s institutions, it sets a precedent for targeting others.
Today, it’s Waqf boards. Tomorrow, it could be churches, gurdwaras, even independent NGOs.
The time to resist is now—before the idea of India is reduced to a memory, and a majoritarian state takes its place.
Let this be clear: this is not just a Muslim issue. It is a national crisis. And how India responds to this bill will say more about its future than any election ever could.
