As the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill met again on Friday, several officials from the Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) appeared before it.
The ASI in its presentation spoke about close to 130 monuments and properties that were disputed over the past several decades. However, lawmakers from both the opposition and ruling sides questioned these claims. A senior Member of Parliament from the ruling National Democratic Alliance asked that if these properties were disputed over several decades, what was being done about it, and why was there no attempt to go to court? Why was it that the disputes could only be solved once this bill was passed, the MP asked.
Also, officials of the culture ministry said that the Waqf Board could stake claim to any property it likes. At this, agitated opposition MPs said that the ministry officials should only state facts and not share concocted and untrue details. “These details are from WhatsApp University,” said some of the MPs, a source stated.
In fact, senior lawmakers also asked the culture ministry officials if they understood the gravity of appearing before the committee because any false information shared could lead to a privilege motion against them.
ASI operates under a legal framework that preserves and protects the rights of religious groups to religious worship and observances even in monuments declared to be protected under the relevant statutes, the opposition said.
The ASI has not sought any statutory changes to the laws relating to Hindu religious endowments that regulate places of Hindu religious worship and include under their ambit several ancient sites of heritage value that are simultaneously of religious significance. This selective approach of the ASI betrays the political bias with which the agency appears to be operating under the present dispensation, an opposition MP pointed out, said sources.
Zakat Foundation of India and Interfaith Coalition for Peace also appeared before the panel on Friday, apart from the Telangana State Waqf Board. So far, all the Waqf bodies that have appeared before the committee, including from Telangana on Friday, and from Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh in previous meetings, have all opposed the bill, calling it “anti-Muslim” in nature.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 8. Afterwards, the government led by minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju announced on the floor of the house that they were ready to send the bill for parliamentary scrutiny.
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