Over 250 passengers, mostly Indians, were stranded at Turkey’s Diyarbakir Airport on Wednesday with no food and limited basic facilities after a Mumbai-bound flight made an emergency landing there.
Thousands gathered on the streets of Kolkata, Chennai, and Ahmedabad Friday – after weekly prayers by the Muslim community – to protest the Waqf Amendment Bill passed by Parliament this week.
Visuals from the Bengal capital showed a large crowd waving the national flag and carrying posters proclaiming ‘we reject Waqf amendment’ and ‘Reject Waqf Bill’ gathering at public meeting sites. Many of the protests, news agency ANI said, were organised by the Joint Forum for Waqf Protection
Visuals of the protests from Ahmedabad suggested a more charged atmosphere; a video shared by ANI showed police trying to forcibly remove elderly demonstrators squatting on the road.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Chennai, where actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam had announced a statewide protest. TVK workers gathered in Chennai and major cities, like Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli, and raised slogans like ‘reject the Waqf Bill’ and ‘do not take away Muslims’ rights’.
#WATCH | Ahmedabad: Various Muslim organisations hold protests against the Waqf Amendment Bill. pic.twitter.com/viavsuqf3D
— ANI (@ANI) April 4, 2025
The Tamil actor-politician – seen increasingly as a dark horse before next year’s Assembly election – called the Waqf Bill “anti-democratic” and said its passage asks questions of India’s secular foundation.
#WATCH | West Bengal: Members of the Muslim community take to the streets in Kolkata to protest against the Waqf Amendment Bill. pic.twitter.com/pKZrIVAYlz
— ANI (@ANI) April 4, 2025
The protests in Bengal will add to the fire brewing ahead of next year’s election, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee having already said she will not allow the state’s Muslims to lose their lands.
Accusing the BJP of trying to divide the country, an accusation also levelled by the Congress – she declared the bill would be repealed when the new non-BJP government forms the central government.
One concern of all these protesters is that the new Waqf laws will be applied retroactively, thereby affecting existing properties. However, Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju told Parliament this week (and he was backed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah) it is prospective in nature.
The changes to the Waqf laws – which govern how Muslim charitable properties are governed – were cleared by Parliament after nearly 20 hours of MPs trading fiery speeches; those from opposition called it “anti-Muslim” while those from the treasury benches hailed the “historic reform”.
READ | Waqf Bill Clears Lok Sabha With 288 Votes In Favour, 232 Against
The Waqf Amendment Bill – which now only needs President Droupadi Murmu’s assent (a formality) to become law – first cleared the Lok Sabha by 288 votes to 232, and then the Rajya Sabha 128-95.
READ | Waqf Bill Passed By Rajya Sabha With 128 Votes For, 95 Against
Among the big changes, the revised Waqf laws mandate the nomination of two non-Muslim members to state Waqf boards and the central Waqf council. It also requires individuals making donations certify themselves as ‘practicing Muslims’ for at least five years previously.
These and many other concerns raised by Muslims and the opposition, including fears the centre will take over the Waqf boards, were dismissed by Mr Rijiju as he tabled the Waqf Bill in Parliament.
He insisted non-Muslims could not now interfere in Waqf Board affairs, as its management, creation, and beneficiaries would remain exclusively from the Muslim community.
The debates on the Waqf bill saw fierce jabs and bitter rhetoric from both sides.
Congress MP Sonia Gandhi called it a “brazen assault” on the Constitution and accused the BJP of seeking to keep society in a state of “permanent polarisation”. At a meeting of her party’s MPs, the senior Congress leader also said the bill had been “bulldozed” through the Rajya Sabha.
READ | “History Made But You Say Bulldozing”: Kiren Rijiju Targets Sonia Gandhi
A furious BJP demanded she apologise. In a press conference Friday afternoon, Mr Rijiju pointed out the Rajya Sabha had debated the Waqf Bill for a record 17 hours and two minutes.
The Lok Sabha debate ran for over 12 hours.
With input from agencies
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Adding fuel to speculation that he may be replaced as the president of the Tamil Nadu BJP, K Annamalai has said that he is not in the running to be the next state chief of the party.
BJP sources said AIADMK chief Edapaddi K Palaniswami has made Mr Annamalai’s removal a precondition for allying with the party again ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections next year. Mr Annamalai’s criticism of AIADMK leaders was seen as a key reason for the party snapping ties with the BJP in 2023.
Replying to a question in Coimbatore on Saturday, Mr Annamalai said, “I am not in the race to become the next president of the Tamil Nadu BJP”.
While the BJP hasn’t made significant electoral gains in Tamil Nadu since Mr Annamalai was appointed the chief of the state unit in 2021, the 40-year-old is credited with giving it much more visibility, which is very important in a state that has proven to be nearly impenetrable for the party.
Known for pulling no punches, the former IPS officer, engineer and MBA is one of the fiercest critics of the ruling DMK. He had captured the national spotlight when he flogged himself six times in December last year to mark the beginning of a mega protest against the DMK after a student of Chennai’s Anna University was raped.
“Anybody who understands Tamil culture will understand this. Flogging ourselves, punishing ourselves, it is part of this culture… This protest is not against a specific person or thing, it is against a continuous injustice that is happening in the state,” he had said.
Punishment Or Promotion?
BJP sources said Mr Annamalai will be told his removal will not be a punishment but part of an approach to expand the footprint of the party in the state, and that a bigger role for him in the party or the government at the Centre has not been ruled out.
Mr Annamalai’s predecessor, L Murugan, had also been made a Union minister after he was removed as the head of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP.
Sources said that when Mr Palaniswami met senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi last month, he insisted on Mr Annamalai’s ouster as a condition for allying with the party again. The AIADMK felt Mr Annamalai had tried to undermine its primacy in the state alliance and project the BJP and himself as the principal opposition in Tamil Nadu. The fact that he criticised several AIADMK leaders only made things worse.
Another factor that is seen as working against Mr Annamalai is that he is from the Gounder community, to which Mr Palaniswami also belongs, and the BJP may try to balance caste equations to have a better chance in the Assembly elections, as Annamalai a Chief Ministerial aspirant is being seen by the AIADMK as a direct challenger to EPS.
Mr Palaniswami is also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Tamil Nadu on April 6 to inaugurate the Pamban railway bridge. Alliance talks are expected to take place during the visit and the new BJP chief may be announced after that.