THE passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 should be described as momentous by multiple standards. There is no doubt that the Bill got through only after a remarkable show of strength by the Opposition segment of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Indian polity -- suggesting that a major part of the larger Indian society has reservations about theWaqf (Amendment) Bill for right or wrong reasons. But suffice it is to say that when a law comes into effect through such a thicket of crisscross discourse, its importance can be stated to be of a very high value to the Indian polity. Let alone the political side of the story of the Bill’s passage in the Lok Sabha and beyond, it must be said that the new law will pave the way for major corrections in the complex situation about ownership of massive tracts of land across the country just because of wrong and unjust claims about their control.

 

No matter the Opposition allegation that the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is unconstitutional, it is obvious that every word in the text of that law adheres to all norms of legality, constitutionality and morality. The passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha, too, was achieved completely through constitutional regulations and conventions at all stages. With such a soundness of the process, there is actually no ground for anybody to heap false and thoughtless and brazen accusations upon the Government for having bamboozled the parliamentary systems for a narrow political goal. Proving the Opposition charge of not allowing of debate on issues wrong, the Government invited the Lok Sabha to a marathon debate the like of which is only rarely witnessed.

 

Every party had enough opportunity to express itself. Though the Opposition indulged in a lot of cantankerousness and lietelling, the overall quality of the much of the debate was fairly good. The highlight of the discourse was the last speech by Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah whose oratorical skills and mastery of detail reached a new height in his extended address. That left the Opposition with no argument to counter -- though its leaders continued to mouth their old arguments that actually made little meaning after the debate. The most important take-away from this episode was that the Narendra Modi Government proved once again that it did not want to dominate the process only on the strength of superior numbers, but allow the Opposition the fullest possible opportunity to express its views. The House was stunned when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mr. Kiren Rijiju said that the Government received 97 lakh-plus representations about the Bill and each of those was given due attention.

 

His statement on the floor of the House also proved that even in the meetings of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the subject, the Opposition had been given every possible opportunity to state its points of view -- in tune with the norms and procedures of parliamentary path. The Waqf Law -- before the current amendment -- was lopsidedly loaded in favour of one community, and tended to be unjust towards other communities -- particularly in matters of claims of ownership of properties. The old law also did not offer any scope for its (what now can be called as) victims to approach any legal forum to seek justice.

 

Those lacunae have now been rectified in the new law -- so that the Waqf claims will be open to judicial scrutiny and correction. It is now necessary for the opponents of the law to understand the importance of the change. They must accept that the law -- no law -- is aimed against any community, Muslim in this case, but its bigger purpose is to provide a legal protection to all without any discrimination. If this is understood correctly, the larger Indian society will be happier.