New Delhi : Initiating discussion on The Wakf Board Amendment Bill 2025 Gaurav Gogii deputy leader of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha alleged that Modi government minister Kiren Rijiju has misled the House with reference to the UPA government. Every time the minister made false allegations on behalf of the government. Making stress the congress leader said that the Constitution of India is our guide, which says that every person in India has social, economic and political justice, freedom of thought, expression, belief, religion and worship, as well as fraternity ensuring the dignity of the individual and the integrity of the nation. He said that this bill is an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution and the minister’s speech is an attack on the fundamental rights and federal structure of our Constitution.
What Gaurav Gogoi Said :
The government has four objectives with this bill-
1. To weaken the Constitution
2. To spread confusion- to defame the minority community
3. To divide the society
4. To disenfranchise the minority community
A few weeks ago, people in the country wished each other Eid, while their double engine government did not even allow people to offer Eid namaz on the road.
If these people express sympathy towards the minorities, then tell us how many minority MPs they have in the Lok Sabha? They should first give details of it, then tell how much sympathy they have for the minorities in their hearts.
I heard the minister the day he brought this bill. He said that there was a detailed discussion before bringing this bill. This is completely misleading.
The Minority Affairs Committee met 5 times in 2023.
• 13 July – Mumbai
• 21 July – Delhi
• 24 July – Lucknow
• 20 September – Delhi
• 7 November – Delhi
I demand from the government to put the minutes of these meetings on the table. In not a single meeting, there was even a mention of the new Waqf Amendment Bill.
We saw the minutes of their meetings, there is not a single statement that we want a new Waqf Amendment Bill.
If the Ministry of Minority Affairs did not consider it appropriate to bring a new bill till November-2023, then the question arises that-
Whether this bill has been made by the Ministry of Minority Affairs or some other ministry- this Waqf Bill is against the Constitution.
One of its clauses says- ‘Any person showing or demonstrating that he is practicing Islam’
Today the condition of minorities in the country has become such that they will have to give a certificate of their religion to the government. This is very sad.
In India we respect every religion and tradition, but today we have to give this certificate to the government that which religion we believe in.
• Will they ask for this type of certificate from other religions?
• Is this not against the Constitution- is it not against Art. 26?
• Why is the government interfering in the matter of religion?
• What kind of justice is this, what kind of law is this?
In Clause 9C, the government says that it is including women in the Wakf Board, but this system already exists.
According to the 1995 Act, more than two women could be included in the Wakf Board. In the new bill, the government has talked about including a maximum of two women only. Overall, this is just a sham.
Similarly, the government is talking about including widows, divorced women and orphans. Those provisions were also already there.
The government just wants to spread the misconception that the current Act is against women and they do not get any role.
In Clause 33, the government reduced the revenue of the Wakf Board from 7% to 5%.
• Why was the revenue of the Wakf Board reduced?
• Doesn’t the government want the Wakf Board to function better?
Our suggestion is that the government should increase this revenue from 7% to 11%.
In Section 52A Clause 26, the government has changed the words ‘severe punishment’ to just ‘punishment’. It is clear that the government is weakening this law. The government’s intention behind bringing this bill is something else.
Today this government has its eyes on one community of the society, tomorrow it will have its eyes on the land of other communities.
The bill should be amended, but such an amendment should be made which will strengthen the bill. They have brought such an amendment which will only increase the problem in the country.
Ever since Islam has come to our country, the process of Waqf has been going on. There are many graveyards which do not have papers, but the decisions of the courts are in their favor.
Today we have repeatedly said that the Limitation Act should be extended, but the government does not want this. It wants that there should be court cases in different parts of the country and the atmosphere of brotherhood in the country should be broken.
Clause 44 says that the government has completely removed Section 110. This section allows the board to make regulations. The government wants to remove it completely. The government is trying to reduce the powers of the state governments.
In Clause 43 Section 109, the government is also trying to reduce the rule-making powers of the state.
The government wants to remove the election process in the selection of Wakf Board members.
Today, the misconception is being spread again and again that the High Court has no role. The Tribunal’s decision on Wakf is final, whereas this is wrong.
Section 83(9) of the parent act states that the High Court can get the documents related to any dispute examined or can change the decision.
If injustice has been done somewhere, then in Section 97 of the parent act, the central government has been given the power to issue instructions to the state board.
BJP’s ‘double engine’ government is in many states in the country. At some places, there are governments run by BJP allies, but can the government tell us how many times they used section 97 of the parent act to stop injustice?
Which community do you want to mislead?
• Who fought for India’s independence
• Who attained martyrdom along with Mangal Pandey ji
• Whose more than 2 lakh Ulemas were martyred
• Who supported Gandhi ji’s Dandi March
• Who opposed the British ‘Divide and Rule’ in 1926
• The community whose Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani demanded complete independence in 1924
• When the people of RSS were opposing the ‘Quit India Movement’ and writing apologies, this community was fighting for the country
• You want to tarnish the image of that community, which completely rejected Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory in 1924
Many people ask what is our nationalism?
• Nationalism for us is being united in our shared love for a Bharat Mata and the mutual respect for her culture, language, dress, food and religion. It is the love for our national flag the Tiranga – which the RSS and you people did not respect.
• It is the sacrifice of the Indian freedom movement- in which you did not participate.
• It is our thirst for knowledge to seek excellence with limited resources, to be creative, to have the courage to acknowledge the injustice of the past and to have the wisdom to build new bridges.
This is our nationalism and this nationalism is mentioned in our constitution today.
The government says that everyone’s opinion was heard in the JPC, but you also know that the government did not accept even a single amendment by the opposition.
We have also seen many JPCs, but have not seen such a JPC where even Clause by clause discussion did not take place. The government said that many people came to the JPC, but there were also people who came to the JPC who did not even know anything about Waqf.
This government wants to remove section 108, which has power to have overriding effect, but this principle is still there in various state acts. Telangana, Tamil Nadu are examples of this.
Even today there is overriding principle in RTI Act, IT Act. The government has problem only with this principle here, but it does not have problem with the overriding principle in other acts.
The Limitation Act which has been removed. It is given in the Andhra Pradesh Act, just like it is in the parent act. I want to tell their members of Andhra Pradesh that the provision which is there in your Andhra Pradesh Act, today the same provision is going to be removed by this government, so later you will also have to answer to your people in Andhra Pradesh.
Today the people of the government talk about digitization, but we opened a digital portal WAMSI 15 years ago. It is accepted that there are some flaws in digitization, so the government should fix it. After all, what has the government been doing for 10 years?
The government is already not able to do one thing properly and is again making another rule that records should be uploaded again on a new portal. After all, how many times should people show their papers to this government?
If the work of WAMSI is incomplete then complete it, but the government’s aim is to increase the issue in the country and that is why today we are against this bill.
This bill is against the integrity of our country, our constitutional values, the respect of minorities, peace and tranquility of the country. That is why today the entire INDIA alliance is standing against this bill.
