Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Tuesday, September 16, criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters for condemning the Supreme Court verdict on the Waqf Amendment Act.
In a post on X, the former Telangana minister said, “As expected, some BJP bhakts are rattled by BRS Party welcoming the Supreme Court’s interim order on the Waqf Amendment Act 2025. They respect neither the Indian Constitution nor the orders of the apex court.”
The Sircilla MLA attacked the Centre for allowing the India-Pakistan cricket match at the ongoing Asia Cup despite the Pahalgam attack in May this year. He said that barely five months ago, 26 innocent civilians were massacred in a Pakistan-sponsored terror attack. “Yet, the ruling BJP has no qualms about our national team playing cricket with the very country that is sponsoring terrorism on our soil,” he remarked.
KTR backs SC order on Waqf Act
Following the Supreme Court’s interim order on the Waqf Amendment Act on Monday, KTR, on behalf of his party, welcomed the decision. “We always fought against the contentious provisions of the Act, which used the facade of progressiveness while propagating polarisation! We cannot be more thankful to the Supreme Court for curtailing the spread of divisive politics using this Act,” he said in a post on X.
SC stays provisions of Waqf Act
The apex court on Monday put on hold several key provisions of the Waqf law, including the clause that only those practising Islam for the last five years can dedicate a property as waqf, but refused to stay the entire law.
Welcoming the decision, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby said in a post on X, “The Hon’ble Supreme Court has stayed certain provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, including the one that mandated a disputed property would not be treated as Waqf unless the executive permits it after an inquiry… The CPI-M welcomes the partial stay.”
CPI Rajya Sabha MP P Sandosh Kumar, in a statement, welcomed the interim order and said that the apex court’s intervention confirms that the amendments were hurriedly pushed through by the BJP without proper discussion with the Muslim community or representative organisations. “Several of the provisions were discriminatory in nature,” he added.
“In particular, the requirement that only individuals practising Islam for five years could create Waqf was a blatant attempt to restrict the rights of minorities. These changes were clearly part of a broader design to stigmatise the Muslim community, deepen communal divisions and open the way for arbitrary takeover of waqf assets. The CPI is among the petitioners who have challenged this law before the Court,” Kumar said in a statement.
He added that the court has not put the entire Act on hold, and a number of unjust provisions remain operative.
“We hope that the judicial process will eventually lead to the annulment of all objectionable parts of the legislation and ensure that any law relating to religious endowments is evolved in a democratic and transparent manner, with due consultation. Such laws must strengthen, not weaken, the secular fabric of our republic,” he said.
The bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George also pressed pause on the powers given to a Collector to adjudicate the status of waqf properties and ruled on the contentious issue of non-Muslim participation in Waqf Boards, directing that the Central Waqf Council should not have more than four non-Muslim members out of 20, and State Waqf Boards not have more than three of 11.
(With inputs from PTI)
