AFTER the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha also passed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025 following a debate that lasted more than 13 hours. The Rajya Sabha passed the Bill well past midnight, with Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar in chair, by a majority.Total 128 members voted in favour of the Bill and 95 voted against it. Of a total 236 members in Rajya Sabha, 223 voted at around 2.25 am on Thursday. After the conclusion of the Question Hour, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju initiated the Waqf (Amendment) Bill debate in the Rajya Sabha.

 

He appealed to Congress and other parties to support the Bill. He reiterated that the Bill did not amount to interference in the religious beliefs of the Muslims. J P Nadda, Union Minister; Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal, Congress MPs; Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi, BJP MP, and several others participated in the debate. Sonia Gandhi, Congress MP, also was in the House during voting on the Bill. J P Nadda, who is also BJP National President, said that 5,970 Government properties including lakes were declared as Waqf properties over decades through misuse of the existing law. Sibal accused the BJP-led Government of ‘raising the Muslim issue for political gains’. Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition, alleged that the Bill was ‘aimed at harassing the minorities’. Dr Trivedi said that the Bill would positively impact the Muslims and that the Government was with the poor and honest Muslims.

 

The debate in the Upper House also saw heated exchange between Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister, on one side and Manoj Jha, RJD MP, on the other. George Kurian, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, said that the the people in Kerala village Munnabam celebrated the passage of the Bill in Lok Sabha a day earlier. Towards the end of the debate, Rijiju accused Congress party of being responsible for Muslims being poor. “BJP is trying to correct this. Let me make it clear that no Muslim will be harmed because of the passage of the Bill,” he said, while urging the support of all the Rajya Sabha MPs.

 

The Upper House has total 236 MPs including 123 of the ruling NDA with 98 from BJP, four from Janata Dal (United), two from Telugu Desam Party, three from Nationalist Congress Party and one from 10 other alliance parties. Whereas, the Opposition Congress-led INDIA bloc has 88 MPs including 27 of Congress, 13 of Trinamool Congress, 10 each of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Aam Aadmi Party, five of Rashtriya Janata Dal, four each of Samajwadi Party and CPI (Marxist), three of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. Besides, 23 MPs are from parties that are neither with NDA nor INDIA bloc. Bharat Rashtra Samithi opposed the Bill. MDMK called the Bill ‘anti-democratic’ and ‘anti-minority’. CPI wanted the Government to withdraw the Bill. BJP, JD (U), TDP, NCP, Shiv Sena (Shinde group) and other members of the NDA supported the Bill. Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has seven MPs in Rajya Sabha, had not issued any party whip thereby allowing its MPs to vote as per their ‘conscience’. YSRCP led by Jagan Mohan Reddy also did not issue a whip for its Rajya Sabha MPs.