New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, April 2, asserted that for vote bank politics, fear is being spread that the Waqf Amendment Bill is an interference in the religious matters of Muslims and properties donated by them.

Intervening in Lok Sabha during a debate on the Bill, he also said that non-Muslims in the Waqf council and boards are meant purely for ensuring the administration of properties under stated aims.

He underlined that Waqf is a type of charitable institution where a person donates his property for social, religious or public welfare purposes, without the right to take it back.

Shah said the word ‘donation’ has special importance because donation can be done only of that thing which is our own property. No one can donate government property, he asserted.

Addressing the House, Shah said a vote bank is being created by intimidating minorities, and confusion is being spread in the country by creating an atmosphere of fear among the minorities.

There was no provision earlier to include any non-Muslim person among those who run religious institutions, nor is the NDA government going to do so, he said.

“To those who give big speeches that the right to equality has ended or there will be discrimination between two religions or the religious rights of Muslims will be interfered with, I want to tell them that nothing like this is going to happen,” the senior BJP leader underlined.

He also said the Waqf law was made ‘extreme’ in 2013 for appeasement ahead of parliamentary polls, and if the law was not tweaked then, the present bill might not have been needed.