Can India Escape Trump’s Trap Through Waqf Route?

The real development could be measured by the Human Development Index, which says how many of our children are well-fed; how many of our youth are in decent jobs; how many of us have access to safe drinking water, and how many of us have access to proper health care

The passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, in Parliament coincided with Trump’s new tariffs on the world. Of course, two events cannot be compared in terms of scale and impact.

The escape the Modi government sought through the passage of the Bill will add to its reputation of being a government that survives on propaganda. Trump’s declaration of a new tariff regime for trade partners of the USA is not just a tariff card, it also signifies an end to the post-World War II world order.

The USA had created and built it amid stiff opposition from the Communist bloc and the Third World countries. The Cold War was fought on the philosophy of liberalism and free trade. The USA and the other capitalist countries linked their opposition to regulated trade and business to democracy and freedom.

A close look would reveal that the propaganda associated with it played an important role in the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European regimes. Reforms by Gorbachev-Perestroika and Glasnost were a real triumph of capitalism over socialism. The Third World is still recovering from its shock.

It was the end of the dream of an equal world. Most of the countries that had gained independence from colonial rule had been trying to survive as a nation with the help of the Soviet Union. They were looking for the possibility of another world free from imperial subjugation.

Competition and freedom from were the mantras that dominated the policy-making in the post-Soviet era. Bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the World Bank were regulating global trade and commerce.

The resources of the world were on sale. The crippling of proletarian idea has given way to the dream of unbridled consumerism. Already enamored by the lifestyle in the Western world, the third world immediately abandoned their fight with colonialism and became a flag-bearer of the new economic order.

They started to chant mantras such as development and reforms. The World Bank and other organisations were forcing them to build roads, flyovers, bridges, metros, and smart cities. In a country like India, which had a glorious history of fighting against colonialism left its ideals of empowering the poorest of the poor and adopted the new ideology.

It changed the priority and now we have all-weather roads connecting every single village to their district headquarters, and outlets of global brands in almost all the towns. It is another matter that the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. We are most unequal societies both in economic and social terms.

Charmed by the theme of development, Indians do not have time to think over the real issue that highways, metros, and smart cities do not mean development. The real development could be measured by the Human Development Index, which says how many of our children are well-fed; how many of our youth are in decent jobs; how many of us have access to safe drinking water, and how many of us have access to proper health care. India ranks 134th among 193 countries on the Human Development Index.

Was it not essential for the rulers of the country to take a look at the policy of economic liberalization and globalization? It was also expected from the intellectuals that they would question the model of development. Some activists, such as Medha Patkar, indeed did it, but without much impact.

The world order that had taken control of our economy and every part of our lives is ready to leave. Trump’s tariff declaration is the declaration of the end of the era that had been unjustly named as era of liberalisation. It was an era of complete control over the lives of billions of people. We do not know whether the USA is declaring its freedom from its role as the world economic order or reinventing its role as an authoritarian leader of the global order. Does it want to size players like China and polarize the world? Trump is indeed displaying eccentricity, however, it has a pattern. He is targeting China and wants to isolate it. His declaration that he would punish economic partners of China carries meaning.

It is clear from the very beginning that the efforts of the USA to reorder the world economy is directed towards more control over world resources by the USA. We can see it in Trump’s putting pressure on Ukraine to sign a deal for the supply of critical minerals. Do his annexation threats to Greenland and Canada not remind us of the colonialism of yesteryears?

And what is India doing in the wake of this complex global situation? On April 2, when Trump was declaring a Liberation Day for Americans and displaying his tariff card to the world, the Indian Parliament was animatedly discussing amendments to the three-decade-old Waqf Act. The Act claims to introduce transparency in governing and managing the Waqf properties. Who will buy its claim? How can the Modi government claim this with its dismal record on transparency? This is the government that is yet to apprise the people about the Rafale deal. This is the government that introduced the Election Bond and runs the Prime Minister’s Care Fund.

Does its claim that amendments are aimed at benefiting poor Muslims and the women of the community hold any water? How can a government that has an agenda of marginalizing Muslims claim it? Can we forget how Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah talk about the politics of appeasement? This is the regime that has allowed cow vigilantes to lynch innocent people, and houses to be bulldozed. The ruling party does not have any MLAs or MPs from the community.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi rightly says that the Bill is aimed at permanently polarizing the country. News of disturbances has started coming in. Will the escape help the country prepare for the big fight Trump has announced?

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)