VHP: 'March 30 will be remembered as the Independence Day of Indian properties'

NEW DELHI: “March 30 will be remembered as the Independence Day of Indian Properties ,” declared the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), following the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, by both Houses of Parliament. The landmark legislation, passed on the first day of the Hindu New Year and the financial year 2025–26, aims to address long-standing issues surrounding the ownership, regulation, and misuse of waqf properties in India.

The Parliament passed a crucial amendment to the Waqf Acts of 1995 and 2013, which the VHP describes as decades of unlawful encroachment and appeasement politics that led to the gifting of public and private lands to the Waqf Board.

According to Vinod Bansal, national spokesperson, VHP, “The roots of this legislative reform (2025 Amendment) lie in a three-decade struggle led by the VHP, centered on a controversial decision by the UPA government in 2014. In a hurried cabinet meeting held on a Sunday, March 3, 2014 — just two days before the announcement of general elections — the government transferred 123 valuable government properties in Delhi to the Delhi Waqf Board. These included sites in high-security zones like Janpath, Lodhi Road, and near the Vice President’s residence.”

The official gazette notification was issued on March 5, 2014, the very day the Election Commission announced the dates for the 16th Lok Sabha elections — a move widely criticized as politically motivated.

“These properties had been acquired by the British between 1911 and 1915 for public purposes. In 1970, the Delhi Waqf Board declared them waqf without proper authorisation,” said Bansal. The government responded by rejecting the claim and filing 123 separate court cases. A 1974 committee, chaired by a then Waqf Board head, controversially upheld the Board’s claims, leading to an order in 1984 leasing these lands to the Board for just Re 1 per acre per year.

In response, the VHP filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court in 1984. The court stayed the transfer and demanded a government policy — which was never produced. After nearly three decades, the case was disposed of in 2011, with instructions to the government to revisit the matter. “Instead, in 2014, the UPA government moved to formalise the handover,” alleged Bansal.

VHP raised the issue with the Election Commission, which cancelled the order for violating the Model Code of Conduct. The battle then continued in the courts and in the public domain, with VHP and citizens across India exposing similar land-grabbing incidents in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka, and other states.

According to VHP the amendment matters as the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is seen as a corrective measure to restore transparency and accountability. Key reforms include mandatory inclusion of women, backward Muslim groups, experts, and the district collector in waqf boards, legal right for affected parties to challenge waqf declarations in court, annual audits and digital registration of waqf properties and guidelines to prevent arbitrary waqf claims over public and private lands.

VHP emphasised that the fight was never against any community, but against what it calls “religious radicalism empowered by political opportunism.” It asserts that these amendments empower all citizens equally under the Constitution and protect national assets from misuse.