'Tomorrow It will Be Us': Waqf Amendment Concerns Sikhs

Apart from parliamentarians, Sikh intellectuals and religious leaders from Akal Takht, the apex body known as the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee, Punjab’s Shahi Imam and various Sikh and Muslim organisations have been vocal.

People hold a protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Kolkata

Jalandhar: The Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025, which was passed by the parliament last week, has not only invited stiff opposition from Muslims but also led to apprehensions among the Sikh community, leaving them alarmed.

Sikh intellectuals have termed the Waqf Bill as yet another attempt to target Muslims after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2020 and the Uniform Civil Code. Many said that the union government’s effort to weaken one religion in a bid to empower another was a dangerous proposition.

Opposition leaders from the Sikh majority state of Punjab including Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Congress leader Amarinder Singh Raja Warring protested the Waqf Bill, expressing concerns that tomorrow the Modi government might bring amendments to The Gurdwara Act 1925, affecting Sikh religious affairs.

The SAD MP also raised the issue of Article 25 (B), demanding separate identity for Sikhs. “We are Sikhs, we are not Hindus”, she stated in the parliament.

Apart from parliamentarians, Sikh intellectuals, and religious leaders from Akal Takht, the highest seat of authority in Sikhism, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC), the apex body of the Sikhs, Punjab’s Shahi Imam and various Sikh and Muslim organisations have also been vocal.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2025 officially became a law on April 5, 2025 following the assent of President Droupadi Murmu. The President also gave her assent to the Mussalman Waqf (Repeal) Bill, 2025.

The last time both the minorities – the Sikhs and the Muslims were active in dissent against the Union government was in December 2020, when the CAA protest picked pace.

Later, when the Modi government introduced the three farm laws, people from Punjab, including Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims had led a joint fight. The Muslims from Malerkotla had set up a special langar stall of sweet rice and milk for the farmers, which had made the news.

On April 4, a delegation of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind met the officiating Jathedar of Akal Takth Sahib Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj and discussed issues related to the Sikh-Muslim communities.

In March last month, a joint delegation of Sikhs and Muslims had also held a conference in Delhi expressing the need for the two minority communities to join hands to save their religious and cultural identities.

The Akal Takht head Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj said that this country belongs to every religion, culture and language, and equal respect must be given to everybody, irrespective of their identity. “When it comes to suppressing minority rights, Bills are passed but where are the Bills to protect the minority rights?” he asked.

SAD, Congress MPs from Punjab fiercely oppose Waqf Bill, claim Sikhs rights under attack too

While Harsimrat Kaur Badal in parliament accused the Union government of trying to break apart minorities, the SAD also passed a resolution against the Bill.

In her speech in the Lok Sabha, Harsimrat asked how a party, which did not even have a single Muslim MP for the last three consecutive terms was remembering Muslims today.

“A party whose politics revolves around the polarisation of Hindus and Muslims, a party whose entire politics depends on Pakistan, Muslim, and Khalistan, how come they are feeling pain for the Muslim women and fair utilisation of Muslims funds?”, she said.

The SAD leader said the Union government was bringing the Waqf Bill for electoral gains in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

“I was wondering what the politics is behind all this. Then I got the Waqf Asset Management document and found that the highest share of Waqf property of 27% is in Uttar Pradesh alone. And Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in one-and-half years, so when they say that they want to give this (Waqf) land to women and manage it fairly, it is clear politics,” she added.

Harsimrat also lashed out at the Modi government for the unjust demolition of some gurdwaras in the country and its interference in the Sikh religious affairs. She accused the government of breaking the Haryana SGPC.

“You are doing the same with SGPC now. Just because you could not control the Muslims, you are dividing them – tukde tukde. You are the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’,sometimes you divide Muslims and then you divide the Sikhs. You are dividing every minority,” she said.

Congress MP from Ludhiana, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, also vociferously protested against the Waqf Bill and cornered the Union government over its claim that the opposition was spreading misconceptions about the Bill.

“The fact is that there are no Muslim MPs from BJP in the parliament. So when the Union government started talking about ‘kabristan-shamshan’, when Godhra, Muzaffarnagar, Delhi, Mewat [all areas that saw communal pogroms] took place, Muslims in the country got scared,” he said.

Earlier in a video shared on X, Warring pointed out at the fear among the Sikhs and said, “I mentioned this in the parliament yesterday that tomorrow the Union government will bring an amendment in The Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925, too. Then what will we do? We cannot let this happen.”

The Congress leader said that it was totally wrong to make a person not of the community a member of a religious body. “Tomorrow, the government will justify such developments [for Sikhs] by claiming that they have already done the same with the Waqf Board,” he said.

Warring stated that since Muslims do not support the Modi government, the latter wants to weaken them economically. “They think that by doing so, Muslims will surrender before them. They are doing the same with farmers in Punjab and trying to weaken them economically,” he added.

Waqf Bill will affect the sense of belongingness of minorities: Sikh scholar

Noted scholar and former head of political science department at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, Jagrup Singh Sekhon, highlighted how Muslims are excluded from the country’s development model.

“Whether political or in decision making, Muslims’ representation is extremely low and disproportionate as compared to others,” he said.

“Whether it was Congress or BJP in power, the plight of a section of Muslims has largely remained the same.

Further, in the last two terms of the Modi government, there has been no visible representation of Muslims. In such a scenario, the passing of Waqf (Amendment) Bill gives an impression that the Modi government was consolidating its vote bank, particularly for the upcoming assembly elections of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal,” he added.

Sekhon also said that the Modi government’s claim of the Act allowing women to get a position at the table is misleading without concrete promises.

The academic added that the Modi government was eyeing political mileage from the legislation and not thinking about the long-term consequences. “It can seriously affect the sense of belongingness of the minorities in the country,” he added.

The government was giving a message that the country can work without the Muslims, he also said. “The idea is to divert people’s attention from pressing issues of the country like unemployment, price rise, falling value of Indian Rupee against the dollar among others,” he said.

Talking about Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s speech in the parliament, Sekhon called it “political compulsion”.

“When in power, the Badals’ appointed Jathedars (supreme head or one who commands Sikh affairs) of their choice in the SGPC and centralised power. But the people of Punjab have shown them their place. It is for this reason that the Sant Samaj (religious leaders) and different factions of the SAD were disillusioned with the Badal family,” he said.

SGPC president, advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami said that it appears that the government’s intent is to curtail minority rights and administer matters according to its own agenda. “The Act is a direct interference by the Union government in minority-related matters,” he said.

‘Dangerous’

Balkar Singh, the former head of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies department at the Punjabi University Patiala equated the Waqf amendments to the time when Adolf Hitler rose to power by taking control of Germany’s economic turmoil and the nationalist sentiments of the people.

“It is an attempt to kill a religion to save another, which is dangerous”, he told The Wire.

He also said that through this bill, the government aims to distract from the real issues of unemployment, inflation, and the falling Indian economy.

Singh said that the Modi government’s Hindutva politics will always aim to show that the space claimed by minorities will be given to the majority community.

‘Unfortunate’

Leading a protest against the legislation, hundreds of Muslims gathered outside the historic Jama Masjid in Ludhiana. The protest was led by Jamiat Majlis Ahrar Islam, a Muslim body, which played a major role in the freedom struggle of the country.

Addressing the gathering, Punjab’s Shahi Imam Maulana Mohammad Usman Rahmani Ludhianvi said that the government’s decision to appoint non-Muslims as the members of Waqf Board after every five years was unlawful.

The Shahi Imam said, “Waqf Board is a religious body of the Muslims. It is meant to take care of the religious properties of the Muslims, hence those running this body should be Muslims, so that they have an idea of the code of conduct and Shariat of the religion.”

He also said that a misconception was being spread by the Union government that there is no Waqf Board in the Islamic countries across the world, which is wrong.

“The two main mosques in the world, Mecca and Medina, are the biggest Waqfs of the Muslims. It is written in Mecca and Medina that this is Waqf. While Allah is the owner of the Waqf properties, Waqf Board is its custodian. The Waqf Board was constituted to support the religion and the financially weaker Muslims through its earnings,” he added.

He said that while the law claims to help in the upliftment of poor Muslims, how the government will do it and which welfare schemes will be launched or implemented has not been mentioned in the legislation.

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