Congress MP in Rajya Sabha Syed Naseer Hussain accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party -led government that it changed his stand after supporting the Waqf Amendment Bill in 2013 because it did not get a clear majority in the 2024 election and it was spreading all kinds of misconceptions in the country about the Waqf Act.
Participating in the discussion in the Upper House on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Syed Naseer Hussain of the Congress said that when this bill came to Parliament in 2013, BJP leaders in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha supported it, but today it is being termed as ‘repressive law’.
He said that when the ruling BJP did not get an absolute majority in 2024 and it was reduced to 240 seats, it remembered this Waqf Act and started calling it a repressive law. He said that Waqf boards were not formed in many BJP ruled states and today Minority Minister is talking about bringing transparency in Waqf.
Hussain wanted to know from the government that the government would open a separate department to identify ‘practice Muslim’ and will give them a certificate by putting a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? He said that the real objective of this bill is that the government itself is looking at the ground of Waqf. He claimed that the ruling party had brought this bill for its vote bank politics.
Hussain challenged the government that most of the people who came to consider the bill to consider the bill, gave opinions against the bill. He challenged the government that the memorandum and documents that came to the JPC and the government regarding this bill should be made public so that the country can know how many people in favor of the bill and how many people opposed it.
Hussain, a member of the above JPC, said that the provisions of the bill were not discussed in detail in the committee meeting and the voice of the members of the opposition was suppressed. He claimed that no recommendation of opposition members was included in the JPC report.
The Congress member suggested that a similar law should be made for matters of all religions and sects except personal law. He said that the government wants to bring a ‘targeted law’ through this bill. He said that the intention of the government is to make a community a second -class citizen. He said that for the first time after independence, citizenship of a particular class people in the country is being stopped through law.
Hussain said that today mosques are being dug up and temples are being searched. He said that if old things will be dug in history, then do not know what things will come out? He said that the government and the ruling party are spreading the illusion in the country that there is only Waqf law for Muslims. He said that there are many laws for the management of temples, SGPC is a law related and many states have laws related to churches.
Hussain said that there is a misconception about the Waqf Bill that the decisions of the Waqf Tribunal cannot be challenged in the court.
On this, Home Minister Amit Shah intervened that according to the current law, a civil suit cannot be filed in the appeal against the decisions of the tribunal, which has been repaired in this bill.
