Wakf Bill: This is how the government crossed the double hurdle in two days, BJD made the contest even more interesting by turning around in the slog over

New Delhi: Finally, after several hours of discussion in the Rajya Sabha, the Wakf Amendment Bill was passed. On Thursday, there was a heated debate between the NDA and India Block MPs throughout the day. In the Rajya Sabha, 95 votes were cast against the bill and 128 votes were cast in favour of the bill. Earlier, the Wakf Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

After the bill is passed by both the houses, the bill will now be sent to the President. After the President’s approval, this bill will take the form of a law. The opposition was accusing the Modi government that through this bill, the government wants to seize the property of the Wakf. At the same time, the BJP claims that the opposition is misleading the Muslims for its political benefit.

Convinced the allies in Lok Sabha
To get the bill passed, the Modi government crossed two big hurdles and first convinced the allies JDU and TDP in the Lok Sabha and then got it passed easily after a long debate in the Rajya Sabha. In fact, the opposition felt that this time BJP would not be able to pass this bill on its own in the Lok Sabha, far from the majority.

The government first convinced the allies by introducing the Waqf Amendment Bill in Parliament on 8 August 2024. After this it was sent to the JPC. The Parliamentary Committee approved its report on the new changes in the Waqf Bill on 29 January. There were 15 votes in favor and 14 against this report. After this, when the bill came to the Lok Sabha, the result was that 520 MPs participated during the voting. 288 voted in favor and 232 voted against. Nitish-Naidu stood with the government despite the opposition of Muslim organizations.

The opposition felt that the government running on the strength of Nitish Kumar’s MPs in Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu’s MPs in Andhra Pradesh would hesitate in taking a decision on Waqf. But even with 240 seats, BJP looked the same in Parliament as it was with 303 seats. After a marathon debate that lasted for more than 12 hours, the government prevailed over the opposition in favour of the Waqf Amendment Bill.

Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu strongly supported the government despite pressure from the opposition and Muslim organizations. Nitish Kumar’s party even rejected the Congress’s argument of secularism. Nitish Kumar, who broke away from the NDA in 2014 before Modi reached Delhi, who kept arguing for the Constitution on the matter of Hindu Rashtra, openly supported the government in Parliament on the Waqf Amendment Bill. BJD did a last minute U-turn Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s party Biju Janata Dal changed its stand on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. The BJD had earlier strongly opposed the bill and called it against the interests of minorities and later allowed its MPs to take an independent decision during voting on it. BJD had made it clear that the party will not issue any whip on this bill and its MPs in Rajya Sabha can listen to their conscience and vote according to their own will.

Additional MPs got support in Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha currently has 236 MPs, due to which the support of 119 MPs was needed for majority here. BJP has 98 MPs in Rajya Sabha. In terms of alliance, the number of NDA members was close to 118. If we add six nominated members who usually vote in favour of the government, then NDA would have reached 124 in the number game. Including Congress (27), 88 members of India Block parties were in Rajya Sabha.

It was the wonder of BJP’s strategy that 128 votes were cast in favour of the bill in Rajya Sabha while 95 members voted against it. It was worth noting that three BJP MPs were absent during the voting.