Waqf Amendment Bill targeting foundation of Muslim institutions, alleges PDP leader

As Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill-2024 has submitted report to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, senior PDP leader Waheed Para said on Thursday that the Bill is not about “transparency or efficiency,” but “is about control, subjugation, and ensuring that Muslims no longer have even their religious endowments to fall back on.”

In a detailed post on X, the Pulwama MLA said, “Muslims in India are already among the most marginalised communities—with cases of lynching on the streets, their homes and businesses bulldozed and their leaders subjected to jail without bail.” “Now, the BJP’s latest amendments to the Waqf Act signal yet another step in this relentless assault, this time targeting the very foundation of Muslim religious and charitable institutions,” he said. “Under the definition of reform, these changes are an attempt to seize control of Waqf properties, further marginalising Muslims and tightening the government’s grip over their assets.”

He said the effect of the amendments would be damaging to Jammu and Kashmir. “This attack is particularly damaging in Jammu and Kashmir, where the wounds of abrogating Article 370 and 35A and the state’s bifurcation are fresh,” he wrote.

Stating that the Muslim leadership from Kashmir made it clear to the JPC that the community overwhelmingly rejects these amendments, Para said yet their concerns were disregarded, exposing the BJP’s deep-seated contempt for democratic consensus.

“A law passed against the explicit will of the people, designed to undermine their institutions and way of life, is not governance—it is control,” he said. He also said the most dangerous amendment eliminates Waqf by user, effectively paving the way for mass land grabs. “The BJP seeks to erase the protection of mosques, graveyards, madrasas, and other religious properties, allowing bureaucrats to declare any such property non-Waqf and making them available for forcible takeover,” Para said, adding that “the government is stripping the Muslim community of control over its institutions.”

“This is part of a larger pattern—Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in the Indian federal structure, has already seen its special status revoked, its land and resources taken, and its voices silenced,” Parra added.

“Now, the same playbook is being used against minorities across India. What we are witnessing is a full-scale control on Muslims—economic, political, and religious—designed to leave them landless, voiceless and powerless in their own country,” he said.