In 2024, when the BJP fell short of the 272-seat mark on its own in the Lok Sabha elections, India’s elite and self-proclaimed political analysts were quick to write the party’s obituary. “Modi’s popularity is waning,” they declared with smug certainty, sipping their overpriced lattes in Delhi’s elite circles. A chorus of pundits chimed in, claiming the BJP, now reliant on coalition partners, would never muster the strength to push through tough legislative changes. They predicted a toothless government, shackled by allies and paralyzed by opposition.

Fast forward to April 2025, and the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, has just been passed in both houses of Parliament, shattering these predictions with the force of a sledgehammer. The BJP-led NDA, despite fierce opposition, has delivered a reform that strikes at the heart of one of India’s most contentious issues: Waqf Board overreach. This isn’t just a legislative win—it’s a slap in the face to every analyst who underestimated the BJP’s resolve and Modi’s political acumen.

A Marathon of Democracy: The Bill’s Passage

The Waqf Amendment Bill’s journey through Parliament was nothing short of a democratic marathon. In the Lok Sabha, debates kicked off on April 2, 2025, and stretched over 12 grueling hours, spilling past midnight into the early hours of April 3. The bill passed with 288 votes in favor and 232 against—a solid 56-vote margin. The NDA, led by the BJP, secured the numbers with support from allies like JD(U), TDP, and LJP (Ram Vilas), proving that coalition politics doesn’t mean paralysis. The opposition, led by the INDIA bloc—Congress, AIMIM, DMK, and others—fought tooth and nail, but their numbers fell short.

The bill then moved to the Rajya Sabha on April 3, where another marathon debate lasted nearly 14 hours, ending in the early hours of April 4. It passed with 128 votes in favor and 95 against, a narrower but still decisive 33-vote margin. The session also saw the passage of the Mussalman Wakf (Repeal) Bill, 2025, which scraps the outdated 1923 Mussalman Wakf Act. The Rajya Sabha adjourned at 4:02 AM on April 4, a testament to the intensity of the discussions. The bill now awaits President Droupadi Murmu’s assent to become law, but its passage through both houses sends a clear message: the BJP can still deliver on tough reforms, coalition or not.

Opposition’s Empty Rhetoric: All Noise, No Substance

Curious about the debates, I decided to listen to the speeches myself. Some I heard word for word; others I skimmed through. What struck me was the opposition’s utter lack of focus. Politicians like Akhilesh Yadav, Kapil Sibal, Asaduddin Owaisi, etc., who vehemently opposed the bill, barely engaged with its content. Instead, they turned the debate into a circus of BJP-bashing, dragging in every unrelated issue they could muster.

Take Akhilesh Yadav’s speech in the Lok Sabha. Out of his entire tirade, he dedicated just four sentences to the Waqf Amendment Bill—and even those lacked any substantive critique. He offered no argument on why the bill was faulty, no analysis of its provisions, nothing. Instead, he rambled on about the Maha Kumbh, the stampede at the Maha Kumbh, the Kar Sevaks, the Godhra riots, and even border disputes with China. What does any of this have to do with the Waqf Amendment Bill? Absolutely nothing. It’s as if Akhilesh was handed a script titled “Attack BJP 101” and decided to read it verbatim, regardless of the topic at hand.

This wasn’t a one-off. Akhilesh has a history of derailing parliamentary discussions with irrelevant tangents, but this time, his performance was particularly egregious. The Waqf Amendment Bill is about land rights, transparency, and curbing overreach—not about China’s border incursions or the Maha Kumbh’s crowd management. The opposition’s strategy was clear: distract, deflect, and demonize the BJP, hoping to whip up enough noise to drown out the bill’s merits.

The Real Pain Point: Why the Opposition Is Squirming

Leaders like Akhilesh Yadav, Owaisi, and Azam Khan have been quick to claim that the Waqf Amendment Bill will “take away houses and shops from a million people.” It’s a dramatic soundbite, designed to tug at heartstrings and paint the BJP as the villain. But what they conveniently omit in their parliamentary rants is the other side of the story: many of those houses and shops were grabbed from others especially Hindus in the name of Waqf in the first place. Its time for justice.

Must read: How the Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 Could Have Stopped Tamil Nadu’s Land Heist Fiasco

Let’s break down the bill’s key provisions and why they’ve got the opposition so rattled. First, the amendment scraps the “Waqf by user” doctrine under Section 40 of the 1995 Waqf Act. This provision allowed Waqf Boards to claim any piece of land by simply asserting it had been used for Islamic purposes for the past several years/decades—no deed, no proof, just their word. High-profile land grabs, like the 1.5-acre plot in Mumbai’s Manish Nagar (valued at Rs 200 crore, home to 5,000 residents) and the 389-acre village in Thiruchenthurai, Tamil Nadu (including a 1,500-year-old Hindu temple), were enabled solely by this clause. Now, the Waqf Board can’t just build a peer or mazar on public property and claim the entire area as Waqf. They need a formal deed, clear evidence, and a legal process—something they’ve long avoided.

Second, the bill tightens the rules around Mutawalis, the caretakers of Waqf properties. Previously, a Mutawali could be verbally assigned the responsibility of managing a Waqf property, opening the door to abuse. Owaisi or Azam Khan could point to a shop, point to a loyalist, and say, “It’s yours from today,” with no paper trail to back it up. The amendment removes the “verbally” loophole, mandating proper documentation for such appointments. This clamps down on the arbitrary transfer of properties, a practice that has long fueled Waqf Board corruption.

But the real kicker—and the reason the opposition is sweating bullets—is the requirement for all existing Waqf properties to be registered on a centralized digital portal within six months. This portal, accessible to the public, will require detailed paperwork, including proof of the dedicator’s ownership and intent. As of 2025, India has 8.7 lakh Waqf properties spanning 9.4 lakh acres, valued at Rs 1.2 lakh crore. How many of these properties have a legitimate dedicator or previous owner? My guess: not as many as the Waqf Boards would like us to believe. This registration process is about to open a Pandora’s box, exposing decades of dubious claims and forcing the Boards to prove their legitimacy. No wonder Akhilesh and Owaisi are clutching their pearls—this transparency threatens the very foundation of their influence over Waqf properties.

The Absurdity of Waqf Overreach: A Tyrannical System

Let’s take a step back and consider the absurdity of the system the Waqf Amendment Bill is dismantling. Under the 1995 Act, someone who didn’t even own a property could “donate” it to Waqf. Imagine this: I walk up to your house, declare, “I donate your house and shop to Waqf,” and suddenly, you’re the one who has to prove it’s not Waqf property. You’d have to take your case to a Waqf Tribunal—a kangaroo court often stacked with Board loyalists—where the Tribunal’s decision is final, and higher courts have no jurisdiction. It’s a tyrannical rule designed to extort land from others, and it’s been the backbone of Waqf Board overreach for decades.

Cases like Manish Nagar and Thiruchenthurai aren’t anomalies—they’re the norm. In Manish Nagar, 5,000 residents were told their homes, built on land leased by MHADA and developed in the 1980s, were Waqf property based on a 1970s survey they were never informed about. In Thiruchenthurai, a 90% Hindu village was claimed by the Tamil Nadu Waqf Board, including a 1,500-year-old Chola-era temple, forcing farmer Rajagopal to get an NOC just to sell his 1.2-acre plot. These aren’t acts of charity—they’re land grabs, plain and simple, enabled by a law that gave Waqf Boards unchecked power.

BJP’s Triumph: A Message to the Doubters

The passage of the Waqf Amendment Bill is more than just a legislative victory—it’s a statement. To the elite who sneered at Modi’s “waning popularity” in 2024, to the analysts who wrote off the BJP’s ability to enact tough reforms, and to the opposition that thought they could derail the bill with irrelevant rants about the Maha Kumbh and China, this is a reality check. The BJP, even in a coalition, has shown it can rally its allies, navigate marathon debates, and deliver on promises that strike at the heart of systemic injustice.

The bill isn’t perfect—implementation will be a beast, especially with states like Tamil Nadu opposing it, and the protection of historical “Waqf by user” claims could leave some disputes unresolved. But it’s a seismic shift, one that prioritizes transparency, accountability, and fairness over the unchecked power of Waqf Boards. For the residents of Manish Nagar, Thiruchenthurai, and countless other communities trapped by Waqf overreach, this bill offers hope—a chance to reclaim their land, their rights, and their dignity.

So, to the naysayers who thought the BJP was down and out in 2024: maybe it’s time to put down the latte and pay attention. Modi and the BJP aren’t just playing the game—they’re rewriting the rules. And the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2025, is proof that they’re here to stay, coalition or not.

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Also read:

• Socioeconomic paradox of Indian Muslim Community and the people responsible for it
• The case of Wakfs and Economic status of Indian Muslims