BJP’s waqf bill draws ire in India, IIOJK
Srinagar: The passage of BJP-led Indian government’s Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025 from Indian parliament has triggered a political storm, with opposition parties and civil society groups accusing it of targeting the Muslim community and diverting attention from pressing economic issues like unemployment and inflation across India and occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, IIOJK Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather called the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, a direct violation of the Constitution. He asserted that the bill contradicts Section 25, which guarantees the Right to Religion, and warned against interference in religious or personal affairs.
The Speaker’s remarks follow the Indian Parliament’s passage of the contentious legislation. Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, while speaking to reporters, warned that any attempt to override such rights could set a dangerous precedent. “It is not good to interfere in anybody’s religion or personal affairs,” he said.
Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), the largest representative forum of Ulema, Imams, and religious organisations in IIOJK headed by Mirwaiz Umar expressed deep anguish over the passing of the Waqf Amendment Bill. Waqf has historically played a vital role in serving the socio-religious needs of the Muslim community and is vital to its sustenance. MMU said the amended bill Is direct interference in the religious affairs of Muslims with a view to curtail the autonomy of these bodies by India and control them further.
Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in her first reaction to the passage of Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha, called it a brazen assault on the Constitution and urged the party lawmakers to be ‘aggressive and combative’ in calling out the failures of BJP-ruled NDA government.
Sonia, addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting at Central Hall, New Delhi, this morning, said that the Waqf bill was bulldozed through the Parliament. “The Bill is a brazen assault on the Constitution itself. It is very much part of the BJP’s deliberate strategy to keep our society in a state of permanent polarization,” she said at the CPP General Body meeting. She urged the Congress members to keep up their fight against Modi government’s brazen attempts to usurp their policies and rebrand as its own.
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference MP Mian Altaf Ahmad speaking in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi criticized the bill, calling it a divisive move aimed at distracting the public from the government’s failure to address economic hardships. He warned that such legislation raises concerns about “India’s secularism and unity”.
Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Forum (JKCSF) Chairman, Abdul Qayoom Wani in a statement issued in Srinagar outrightly opposed the Waqf Amendment Bill 2025. He termed the bill “unconstitutional” and an attack on the sentiments of the Muslim community in India and Kashmir. The bill violates fundamental rights enshrined in the Article 14, Article 25, Article 26 and Article 29, Wani said. He deplored that the bill infringes on religious and cultural matters, violating fundamental rights.
The Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti (KPSS) also denounced government interference in religious matters.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi talking to the media persons in New Delhi attacked the bill as an assault on the Constitution, alleging that it seeks to disenfranchise minorities and defame them.
