THE honourable Supreme Court has rightly mirrored the national sentiment that the violent anti-Waqf law protests were “very disturbing”. A bench of Chief Justice Mr. Sanjiv Khanna, Mr. Justice Sanjay Kumar and Mr. Justice K.V. Viswanathan expressed its sense of grief and concern as it dealt with petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 even when the matter was still pending with the courts. “... it should not happen”, the three-member bench stressed, echoing the feeling of the vast majority of Indian people across religious lines. This strong expression of its sentiment by the honourable Supreme Court should be enough to give a message to the elements that are trying to create a political ferment on the properly, legally and constitutionally amended Waqf Act that has sought to correct the anomalies in the basic approach to the law and its structure that was hugely abused by vested interests over the past decade or so.

 

No matter what the functionaries of the Government at different levels may have to say in this regard justifying the amended law, the common people, too, are in a position to see and sense a blatant politicalisation of the situation by vested interests. The general observation is that some political vested interests are trying to whip up Muslim sentiments by projecting utter falsehood and distortion about the amended law -- whereas reality is altogether different. And the unsuspecting people in the streets get swayed by that fanning of antagonism and start violent protests without actually understanding or knowing the details about the amended law correctly. The honourable Supreme Court has referred to this unfortunate reality of today’s politics.

 

Though the people have every right to demand change in law if such need is genuinely felt. On many occasions in the past, too, such demands have surfaced from time to time and suitable alterations, too, have been effected in certain laws that faced public scrutiny. But when the protests or demandrallies turn violent -- as if pre-meditated -- then doubts well up in the mind about a conspiratorial design to create disturbance in the larger Indian society against constitutionally-passed laws. This reality of the recent times has disturbed the honourable Supreme Court -- which is quite understandable. For, the honourable judges have only mirrored the public sentiment on the issue of the amended Waqf law. No matter the (violent) protests and strong Opposition statements, the common people in the street everywhere in the country realise that the amended law is not what the Opposition is trying to project. Much to the contrary, the people now realise -- thanks to the serious public-education campaign by the people in the ruling side -- that the amended law is not in least antagonistic to Muslim interests.

 

They also realise that the amended Waqf Act will rectify the terrible wrongs that had come to afflict the overall Muslim community. The details of abuse of the old Waqf Act (before amendment) now in public domain are actually shocking, to say the least. Vested interests had created havoc in the country by claiming Waqf ownership of lands that, for example, were owned by Temple trusts etc for 15,00 or so years. Besides what the Government said in support of the amended law, the media is now full of reportage of how innocent people in large numbers are coming up to lodge complaints against unfair and illegal acquisitions under the old Waqf law. When facts are so clear, then why should some elements turn to violence against a constitutionally-amended Waqf Act? The honourable Supreme Court’s sentiment has to be seen from this stand-point. It is time, therefore, that the country’s political community understood the truth and went by it and discourage undesirable elements from their dirty designs.