Has the Modi government once again lost a golden opportunity to bring about an overarching law which would provide some homogeneity to our diverse religious and charitable organisations? If he had done so, this could have proved a first step towards having a central Uniform Civil Code and not the present piecemeal attempts being introduced on a state-wise basis. There are disputes around several Hindu temples and Sikh gurudwara properties as there are around Waqf properties.

When former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat introduced the controversial Char Dham Devsthanan Management Act, which gave the state government control of 50 key temples, including the shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, the powerful lobby of priests stopped Rawat from entering the Kedarnath shrine and warned they would work to throw the state BJP government out of power. Fearful of a negative fallout in the upcoming state elections, the BJP chose to replace Trivendra Singh as chief minister as also to repeal the act.

The BJP is not interested in creating some equanimity in our different religious institutions. From the start, they have pursued an anti-minority divisive politics, and this has paid them electoral dividends. Ratcheting up the Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 is part of this overall strategy, and every few weeks, some new morsel is thrown at the public, obviously to keep up this anti-Islam phobia.

Several explanations were offered by a galaxy of BJP ministers on the floor of Parliament, led by none other than Home Minister Amit Shah, about how this latest Waqf Board amendment would help bring about greater transparency and efficiency in its functioning and also ensure a reach out to the poorer sections of the Muslim population.

Noble intentions, but the nature of these new provisions seems to point in the opposite directions. The Waqf Board, which is already an over-regulated body, is going to end up........

© Free Press Journal