After Lok Sabha, Waqf Amendment Bill passed in Rajya Sabha too, 128 votes in favor, one step away from becoming law

New Delhi. After passing in Lok Sabha, Waqf Amendment Bill 2025 has now been passed by Rajya Sabha as well. 128 votes were cast in favor of the bill while 95 members voted against it. Waqf is just one step away from becoming a law. Now it will be sent to the President, after getting approval from there, it will become a law. After the discussion on the Waqf Bill was completed in the Rajya Sabha, Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, Waqf Board is a statutory body and it should be secular. Not a single Muslim will be harmed by this bill. Crores of Muslims are going to benefit.

What did Kiren Rijiju say?
After the discussion on the Waqf Bill was completed in the Rajya Sabha, Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju assured that no non-Muslim will interfere in the religious activities of Muslims. Rijiju said, ‘You want only Muslims to sit in the Waqf Board. If there is any dispute with Hindus or people of any other religion, how will it be resolved. This kind of body should be secular. There are four people in it, so how can they change the decision. They can only use their expertise. You should never forget that once you declare a Waqf, you cannot change its status. Once a Waqf, always a Waqf’.

Kiren Rijiju said – Those who said on CAA that after its passage, Muslims will lose their citizenship. Someone’s citizenship was taken away. This bill will be passed today and not a single Muslim will be harmed by it, crores of Muslims will benefit from it. The Waqf Board is a statutory body and it should be secular.

What did Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Kharge say?
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said on the Waqf Bill that this bill has been brought with the aim of harassing the minorities. He said that the basic elements that were in the 1995 Act have been included, but many things have also been added which should not have been there. Kharge pointed out many flaws in this bill and called it harmful to the interests of minorities.

Citing the budget allocation and expenditure of the Minority Ministry in the last few years, he said that the budget has been reduced from 4000 crores to 2800 crores. Also, he criticized the government that they are not using the allocated budget properly. Kharge also said that the government has stopped five important schemes of the minority community and despite that big things are being said about Pasmanda and women.

Opposition’s unity on Wakf Bill
The opposition was divided on the issue of Adani in Parliament, divided on seat sharing in Haryana elections, fought the Delhi elections divided, after the defeat in Haryana-Maharashtra-Delhi, allies questioned the leadership of Congress. There was even a fight for leadership within the All India Alliance. But after the Lok Sabha elections, the divided opposition suddenly united on the Wakf Amendment Bill in Parliament.

Whereas the Congress and Trinamool Congress, who are at swords with each other, united on the Wakf Amendment Bill. Congress-Aam Aadmi Party, who fought elections against each other two months ago, united on the Wakf Bill and opposed the bill.

Recently, Samajwadi Party leaders had even started talking about the weakness of the opposition due to the arrogance of the Congress. But the Wakf Bill in Parliament removed that bitterness as well. Everyone started speaking in one voice.

The result was that when voting took place in the Lok Sabha first, 520 MPs participated. 288 voted in favour and 232 voted against it. Similarly, in Rajya Sabha too, neither the ruling party MPs wavered nor was there any divided opinion among the opposition parties.

Why did the opposition unite so much?
The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have exposed new equations in Indian politics. This time, the NDA got only 8% of the Muslim votes, while the opposition alliance, known as the INDIA alliance, got the support of 65% of the Muslim vote.

There are a total of 88 Muslim-dominated Lok Sabha seats in India, that is, those seats where the Muslim population is more than 20%. In this 2024 election, the NDA won 38 seats, out of which 30 seats were won by the BJP. On the other hand, the INDIA alliance won 46 seats, out of which 16 seats went to the account of Congress. The remaining 4 seats were won by other parties.

The special thing is that even in Muslim-dominated seats, the opposition parties have got more success than the NDA. This result clearly shows that a large part of the Muslim community has stood in support of the opposition.