AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday warned the government against tabling the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in its current form, saying that it would lead to social instability in the country.
Mr Owaisi said that the Bill has been rejected by the entire Muslim community.
“I am cautioning and warning this government – if you bring and make a Waqf law in the present form, which will be a violation of Article 25, 26 and 14, it will lead to social instability in this country. It has been rejected by the entire Muslim community. No Waqf property will be left, nothing will be left,” the AIMIM chief said during his address in the Lok Sabha.
“You want to make India ‘Viksit Bharat’, we want ‘Viksit Bharat’. You want to take this country back to the ’80s and early ’90s, it will be your responsibility,” he added.
He further said, “As a proud Indian Muslim, I will not lose an inch of my Masjid…I will not lose an inch of my Dargah. I will not allow that. We will no more come and give a diplomatic talk over here. This is the House where I have to stand and speak honestly, that my community – we are proud Indians. It is my property, not given by anyone. You cannot snatch it away from me. Waqf is a form of worship for me.”
Earlier in the day, opposition MPs Kalyan Banerjee (Lok Sabha) and Md. Nadimul Haque (Rajya Sabha) strongly protested the removal of key portions from their dissent notes submitted to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
In a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the MPs alleged that their objections were arbitrarily deleted without prior notice or explanation.
“To our dismay and utter surprise, we found that the following objectives and dissent notes have been deleted by the Chairman without informing us and without our consent,” the MPs wrote in their letter dated February 3, 2025.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
