SC’s Partial Stay on Waqf Amendment Ignores Its Majoritarian Agenda
The Supreme Court’s Interim Order on Waqf Amendment act provides only partial relief by way of limiting the number of non-Muslim members in the Central Waqf Council and State Waqf Boards and restricting the powers of government officials regarding settlement of disputes pertaining to Waqf property. However, it does not go into the anti-Muslim essence of the Amendment that emanates from Modi regime’s Hindutva agenda of targeting and discriminating the Muslim community. Most striking is the Court’s non-interference in the provision in the Waqf Amendment mandating compulsory inclusion of non-Muslims in Waqf bodies. While all other religions including Hindu, Christian, Sikh, etc., are having the right to keep only members of their faith in respective religious bodies, this is an outright discrimination against Muslims, an aspect that the Court has not taken into consideration. This provision in the Waqf Amendment is unconstitutional, as it violates Article 26 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees the right of religious communities to administer their own institutions. Along with this, the Court has not gone into other serious questions like stringent conditions required for constituting and registering Waqfs, which are also the core aspects of the Amendment.
Secularism in the Indian Constitution implies State’s “principled distance,” from religious matters, equal treatment of all religions without favoritism or discrimination and prevention of domination of a particular religion on another. In India, there is no restriction on any person of any faith to donate property for religious or charitable purposes. Now this right is denied in the Waqf Amendment Act, which is unconstitutional. Viewed in this perspective, as in the case of the series of anti-Muslim enactments such as CAA, Madarsa Act, Uniform Civil Code, etc., the Waqf Amendment Act is also patently anti-Muslim and is in tune with RSS’ stigmatisation of Muslims as number one enemy of India. It is inseperable from the ongoing maddening pace towards a majoritarian Hindurashtra.
Since, this is an Interim Order, all concerned have to come forward to resort to all legal avenues based on Constitutional principles, before the Court delivers the final Order in this regard. At the same time, all anti-fascist, secular and democratic forces should rise up exposing and resisting the vicious Hindutva agenda behind the Waqf Amendment, and compel the Modi regime to repeal this anti-Muslim legislation at the earliest.
See, the following link for our Statement issued on 3 April 2025.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19M1yGp6SZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
New Delhi
16.09.2025
