The Indian Parliament passed a controversial bill on Friday that increases government oversight of properties held by Muslim trusts, despite vocal protests that the religious minority was being singled out for interference.
The bill would allow the appointment of non-Muslims to panels administering the trusts, called Waqf boards, and empower state officials to be adjudicators of disputes.
The Waqfs — whose legal foundation in India is over 100 years old — are one of the largest landowners in the country, managing more than 800,000 properties covering nearly a million acres, according to government figures. A 2006 report commissioned by the government estimated the value of the properties — which include mosques, religious seminaries, graveyards and other land often donated by individuals — at over $14 billion.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party has said the changes in how the trusts are run was needed to improve efficiency and accountability, and prevent abuse.
Ahead of introducing the bill in Parliament for a vote, Kiren Rijiju, India’s minister for parliamentary and minority affairs, said the legislation was not an attack on Muslim rights but a necessary reform to protect Waqf assets from misuse.
“This is about transparency, not interference,” Mr. Rijiju said.
Unlike during Mr. Modi’s previous term, when he used an absolute majority to push legislation through Parliament with often heavy-handed swiftness, the Waqf bill underwent months of deliberation. It also saw two days of passionate but cordial debate that went well past midnight each day before the vote.
The sparring — increasingly rare in the legislature, where fewer bills have come under deliberation and scrutiny in recent years — was a sign that Mr. Modi, who lost his majority in last summer’s election, now needs the help of allied parties to pass legislation. But it also showed that his well-entrenched Bharatiya Janata Party was able to get its way even with reduced power, and that his parliamentary allies only acted as a slight moderating factor.
Faizan Mustafa, the vice chancellor of Chankaya National Law University, said that while the Parliament has the power to enact legislation on religious and charitable endowments, those laws could still face further tests in the courts.
“If any provision of the Waqf bill is in contravention of fundamental rights, it may be challenged and possibly struck down in the courts,” he said. “There can be an argument that Muslim endowments are treated differently from Hindu endowments laws in some places,” he added.
Many critics of the new Waqf bill agree that there was a need to improve the management of the trusts. But they also say they are concerned that the bill is the ruling Hindu nationalist party’s latest attempt to target the country’s largest religious minority.
While the constitution protects the rights of religious groups to manage their own affairs, some observers say this bill provides a new legal basis for the authorities to target the Muslim community.
In states where Mr. Modi’s B.J.P. is in power, officials have been bulldozing Muslim properties after alleging encroachment, often ignoring court orders on due process, the critics say.
Right-wing groups have laid claim to several mosques, arguing in court that they were once the site of Hindu worship — despite Indian laws that prevent changing the status of places of worship. Vigilantes have also attacked Muslim shrines, taking hammers to graves.
Imran Pratapgarhi, a Muslim member of Parliament from the opposition Indian National Congress, said he did not believe B.J.P. assertions that the bill was meant to benefit the Muslim community.
“I am requesting the government: At least do not snatch away our places of worship, do not run bulldozers over our homes, and let us be at peace in our graves,” Mr. Pratapgarhi said.
