Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
The Lok Sabha passed the Waqf Amendment Bill by majority after midnight. 288 votes were cast in favor of the bill and 232 votes in protest. The Rajya Sabha will have voting on this bill on Thursday. There was a 12 -hour marathon debate in the Lok Sabha. The apprehensions that were expressed about the bill in the Lok Sabha, the suspicion of the government’s intention, was given concrete answers from the government on all these things. The biggest charge was that if the Waqf bill passed, the government would capture the property of Muslims. If the law changed, mosques, Idgahs, cemeteries will be taken away from Muslims. Recently, I got a chance to talk to many Muslim brothers and sisters. He was explained by the talk of Maulanas in the arguments given in the mosques that the intention of the government is to grab the property of Muslims, hence the law of Waqf is being changed. Most of the people do not have time to understand the law, so they believe the words of Maulanas and Maulwis, but on Wednesday, Amit Shah explained the way Amit Shah explained that there is no intention to capture the property of Muslims, no provision. Amit Shah gave an example and explained that at which place Waqf has captured the government property and also told how the expensive property of Waqf is sold to hotels and private people at a quarter to one price. Then it also told that Waqf has assets worth thousands of crores, but the annual earnings from them are only Rs 126 crore. Those who listen to all these things will understand why the government had to change the law of Waqf and by changing these laws, there is no threat to mosques and cemeteries. They belong to Muslims and they will remain.
For the past several weeks, Muslims in villages were explained that if the law of Waqf has changed, the government would capture the property of Muslims. Mosques, cemeteries will be grabbed. But during the entire debate on Wednesday, no leader who opposed this bill could tell where there is such a provision in this bill? How will the property of Muslims be captured? The whole focus was on the contract of Muslims. It was argued that Congress, Trinamool Congress, RJD and Samajwadi Party can support Muslims, but who is the BJP who talks about the good of Muslims? The argument was given that Muslims do not vote for BJP, there is no Muslim MP of BJP, then what is the right to BJP to talk about the good of Muslims? The debate of the opposing parties was on the fact that BJP governments prevent Muslims from offering prayers on the road, the Modi government enacted three divorce laws, so if the BJP talks about the benefits of Muslims, then there will be something wrong with it. What the opposition people said means, the BJP governments should get Kumbh Mela, make a corridor of Kashi Vishwanath and Mahakal, but why does BJP talk about Muslims, because the contract of Muslims belongs to the leaders of the opposition. The truth is that before Narendra Modi, the governments were afraid to tease any law related to Muslims, she was afraid of the contractors of Muslim votes. Muslims kept getting votes, because of this, they were also afraid of the idea of angry the Muslims. Narendra Modi has changed this narrator. Modi was also intimidated by saying that if he brings the bill of Waqf, JD -U will leave along, TDP will run away, the government will fall. But Narendra Modi is made of separate soil. He was not afraid of such things, stood on his point. The same thing makes Modi different from the rest of the leaders. (Rajat Sharma)
See: ‘Today’s talk with Rajat Sharma’ full episode of April 2, 2025
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