Minorities

Renaming the legislation "Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency, and Development Act" (UMEED Act), in line with the government’s enthusiasm to rename things; a critical examination of the amended provisions reveals that provisions of the 2025 act represent a significant regression, fundamentally undermining the religious autonomy and property rights of the Muslim minority, thereby challenging constitutional safeguards’ some amendments directly weaken legal protections afforded to Waqf properties, raising fears of systematic dispossession

Corruption and illegal encroachment of graveyards, maqbara and masjid land are not only confined to Muslims. Religious bodies of other faiths are too plagued by them.

After the Union government insisted it would bring to the Court’s notice grave violations of the previous law, the Court recorded the Centre’s assurance of any appointment to the Waqf Board or Council, implying a bar on any non-Muslim appointments to the Waqf Boards/Council and stayed any Waqf property de-notifications, including waqf by user, under the 2025 amendment; next hearing on May 5

Three reported dead in Murshidabad clashes; court steps in, directs authorities to maintain peace and investigate violence. As political parties trade blame, locals allege involvement of unidentified outsiders, adding new layers to the unfolding crisis. None of the deceased – Ijaz Ahmed, a student, and a father and son of one Das family, Haragovinda and Chandan – were actively instigating violence or part of any political outfit, as their friends and neighbours claimed, and yet they were killed.

A team of lawyers and activists has found that sections of the Odisha police assaulted children and priests with lathis even as women were ‘beaten and molested’; all inside the Juba Catholic Church in Gajapati district in Odisha on March 22, 2025; the fact-finding team met some of the girls, women and the priests to bring to light the brutalities faced by them.

Controversial figures like Sayyid Qutb can undermine the legitimacy of the movement and distract from the genuine concerns of the Muslim community in India

Clashes leave nine injured, vehicles torched, and highways blocked as tensions flare over new legislation; prohibitory orders imposed and political blame game begins

"Please leave the state as soon as possible. Otherwise, things can turn out ugly," said one of the Hindu Jagran members is reported to have threatened

Responding to a press note issued by the by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India urging political parties in Parliament to support the proposed amendments to the Waqf Act, Christian academics and activists have, in an open letter dated April 8, urged a re-think on their stand

First Published on : August 20, 2024The United Waqf...