Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 passed in Lok Sabha amid heated debate
A heated debate on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 took place in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, concluding with voting in the early hours of Thursday. Following a heated debate between the ruling and opposition parties, the central government successfully passed this bill in the Lok Sabha. 288 MPs voted in support of the Waqf Amendment Bill, while 232 votes were cast against it. BJP's allies openly supported this bill. Now it will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah made serious allegations against the Waqf Board in the Lok Sabha and mentioned several properties, which were allegedly wrongly taken over by the Waqf. He informed that 212 villages spread over 250 hectares in Tamil Nadu were declared Waqf properties. Not only this, 400 acres of land of a 400-year-old temple was also transferred to the Waqf. In Karnataka, 29,000 acres of land were given on commercial rent by the Waqf Board. Shah also revealed that between 2001 and 2012, properties worth about Rs 2 lakh crore were given to private institutions on a 100-year lease.
Amit Shah said that the Waqf Board also claimed the lands of temples and gurudwaras. Waqf took over 12 acres of land of the Mahadev temple in a village in Maharashtra and the Kankleshwar temple in Beed. 14 properties related to gurudwaras in Haryana were handed over to Waqf. Waqf also claimed 1,700 acres of land in Telangana, estimated to be worth Rs 66,000 crore. Chandrashekhar Azad Park, located in Prayagraj, was also said to be a Waqf property. The Home Minister said that all this is promoting corruption and chaos.
The Home Minister targeted the opposition and said that it is creating unnecessary fear in the Muslim community for vote bank politics. He clarified that this bill has not been brought to interfere in the religious matters of the Muslim community, but to bring transparency in Waqf properties and to prevent corruption. Shah said, "Waqf properties are for the welfare of poor Muslims, not for illegal occupation by the rich." He also said that if the Congress had not amended the Waqf Act in 2013, then this bill would not have been needed today.
The Home Minister said that many churches in South India are supporting this bill because Waqf also claimed the properties of the Christian community, due to which the people there are angry. He also took a dig at Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and said that his attempt to strengthen his vote bank with this bill will fail. Shah expressed confidence that soon the Muslim community will realize that this law is in their interest.
