Will Nitish back Centre on Waqf Bill? BJP confident of support from allies, JD(U) keeps suspense going

The Janata Dal (United) led by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is yet to articulate its stand on the Waqf Amendment Bill. (File: PTI)

The Janata Dal (United) is yet to clearly spell out its stand on the Waqf Amendment Bill that the Centre plans to table for discussion and passage in the second leg of the Budget Session of Parliament that ends on April 4.

While the Centre readies plans to table the Bill in the coming days, the JD(U) maintains that it will go through its fine print to ascertain whether the concerns it had raised had been duly addressed, CNN-News18 reported citing party sources.

The JD(U) had demanded that the retroactive implementation of certain provisions of the Bill, especially the removal of "waqf by user" principle, be done away with in the revised Bill. The Bill, initially tabled in Parliament by the Centre in August last year, was sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Sources in the Centre reveal that it has made no changes to the Bill as sent by the Waqf JPC, but exuded confidence that it would garner the support of allies, including the JD(U), for the Bill as it "has taken care of their concerns".

The JD(U), which supported the Bill when it was presented in the House, has been speaking in two voices over the party's stand on the matter. While senior JD(U) MP and Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh extended support to the Bill in Lok Sabha, arguing that it aims to bring transparency in the functioning of Waqfs Boards and was not "anti-Muslim", JD(U) MLC Ghulam Gaus has opposed it.

Terming the proposed legislation an affront to minorities, Gaus on Tuesday accused the BJP-led Centre of repeatedly targeting minorities through unfair policies.

"I was the first person to oppose the Waqf Amendment Bill. Ever since this central government has come, sometimes there is love jihad, CAA, mob lynching, triple talaq and now this. This is our religious matter...you (Centre) did nothing to protect our rights," Gaus told news agency ANI.

The Opposition, meanwhile, has upped the ante against the Centre which is confident that the numbers are in its favour. The NDA has 293 MPs in the 542-strong Lok Sabha, including 240 of the 240, 12 of the JD(U), 16 of the TDP, 5 of the LJP, 2 of the RLD and 7 of the Shiv Sena. The Centre needs the support of 272 MPs for a majority.

In the Rajya Sabha too, the NDA has 123 MPs -- comfortably above the majority mark of 119 required in the Rajya Sabha which has 236 MPs. They include BJP’s 98, 4 of the JD(U), 2 of the TDP, 3 of the NCP, and 1 of the RLD.

Hoping to drive a wedge in the ruling coalition, Congress general secretary and RS MP Jairam Ramesh said that the Waqf Bill was a "direct attack on the Constitution" and questioned the stand of NDA's alliance partners like JD(U) and TDP.

"Every Opposition party opposes it, Samajwadi Party, TMC, AAP, everyone opposes it, but the question is what parties like JD(U) and TDP do? The parties who call themselves secular, who say they believe in it, what is their stand on it?" Ramesh said.

The Centre, meanwhile, has said that it wants to "pass the Bill in the current session" of Parliament and advised Opposition parties to refrain from spreading misinformation about the Bill.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju appealed to all political parties to participate in a detailed discussion on the Waqf Amendment Bill when it is brought in Parliament. Addressing the media in New Delhi on Tuesday, Rijiju said while the Bill is ready, some leaders were "spreading lies" over the proposed legislation which he said was detrimental to the society and the nation.

"Such attempts for misguiding the innocent people are condemnable," he said, adding that the widest ever consultations over the Bill have been done by the Joint Parliamentary Committee.