NEW DELHI: India’s parliament passed a bill on Thursday to reform hugely wealthy Muslim land-owning organisations, with the Hindu nationalist government saying it will boost accountability while the opposition called it an “attack” on a minority.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government argues the bill will boost transparency to more than a dozen powerful Waqf boards, which control properties gifted by Muslim charitable endowments.
There are around two dozen Waqf boards across India, owning some 900,000 acres (365,00 hectares), a multi-billion-dollar property empire that makes them one of the biggest landholders alongside the railways and the defence forces.
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who tabled the bill on Wednesday, said it would check corruption and mismanagement and reduce the hold of a few entrenched groups.
The bill was passed by the lower house of parliament after a marathon debate that stretched into the early hours of Thursday.
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