Waqf Bill meant to stop theft and fraud Haryana Minister Anil Vij

Chandigarh, Apr 3 (PTI) After the Lok Sabha early Thursday passed the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, Haryana Minister Anil Vij said it is an important bill meant to prevent fraud and theft.
    The energy, transport and labour minister said it was not the first amendment that had been brought.
    The senior BJP leader alleged that in 2013, "under the influence of appeasement politics, the Congress government had amended the Waqf Act in a way that allowed the Waqf Board to claim ownership of any land, placing the burden of proving ownership on the person who possessed the land".
    If this had remained unchanged, the Waqf Board could have claimed ownership on any land, leaving the people in a difficult situation, he said here.
    He said that the current amendment "is meant to correct the appeasement-driven Bill introduced by Congress".
    The Lok Sabha early Thursday passed the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, after more than 12-hour debate, which saw the ruling NDA strongly defending the legislation as beneficial for minorities, while the opposition described it as "anti-Muslim".
    Vij said that the government works for the general public, and people are happy with its decisions. Across the country, people celebrated with fireworks and by dancing, Vij said.
    "However, religious leaders who have a political agenda rather than a religious one cannot be pleased," Vij said.
    On some of the opposition leaders calling the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha as a "dark day" in India's secular democracy, Vij said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's will continue to shine for years in the country, and for the opposition, it will remain a "dark night".

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)