Waqf Amendment Bill | Govt out to target one community, dilute Constitution, cover up failures: Opp chorus

Gogoi’s party colleague K C Venugopal said, “They have only one agenda — to divide Bharat Mata in the name of religion.” Wondering why non-Muslims were to be included in the Waqf Board, he referred to the Vaishno Devi Temple Act which stated that the Lt Governor would be the chairman of the Board, and if he was not a Hindu, he would nominate a Hindu to the position.

Venugopal said the Devaswom Board in Kerala could have only Hindu MLAs voting in it. “You are discriminating here, and then claiming it is not unconstitutional,” he said, asserting that Waqf properties were as religious as temple trusts.

“Today you are against Muslims. Tomorrow, you will be against Christians, then Jains and then Sikhs,” he said. Venugopal sought to know whether the government would have a separate department to identify who had practised Islam for five years, and said that in India, people were free to practice any religion the day they chose to.

Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM MP.

“I am a Hindu religion believer… You did not deliver on governance, but used religion to divide the country,” he said.

Taking swipes at the BJP, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “There is competition within the BJP on who is a worse Hindu. The party that claims to have the highest membership in the world is not able to elect its president,” he said.

On hearing this, Union Home Minister Amit Shah interjected, saying, “Akhilesh ji has said this with a smile and I will reply with a smile. In all these parties, only five people from a family have to elect the president. We have to elect from 12 crore members. It’s a long process. In your party it won’t take time. I am telling you now that you will be president for the next 25 years.”

Yadav said the Waqf Bill was aimed as a distraction from the government’s multiple failures: “They were talking about the many progressive Bills they have brought. They had similarly come up with demonetisation after great preparation. Let’s discuss that too. There is failure on other fronts: rising prices, unemployment, and farmers’ income. Have Ganga and Yamuna been cleaned up? Have smart cities come up? Have they abandoned the villages they had adopted? This time, this Waqf Bill is the veil on these failures.”

He said it was an injustice to not give importance to the opinion of the people for whom this Bill was being brought.

Yadav suggested that political leaders were prevented from participating in Eid celebrations and wondered if this was the culture of the country.

Pointing out that the Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju himself was a Buddhist and, therefore, a person from a minority, Yadav said, “This is not Buddha’s way. You do not believe in our Puranas, but still we call you our own. That’s who Hindus are.”

“BJP is talking about demarcating properties of Muslims under the Waqf so that a veil of secrecy can be put on the identity of those who died in the Mahakumbh…. The government said it was prepared to host 100 crore people, and… should tell where are the 1,000 Hindus who have gone missing in the Kumbh? The UP CM is stuck with the number 30 as if he is Tees Maar Khan,” he said.

Claiming that the government intended to snatch away houses and shops from people, Yadav said the BJP wanted Muslims to feel agitated so that it could polarise the atmosphere.

TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee said Waqf was an institution for religious and charitable purposes, and that Muslims had the constitutional right to manage their affairs.

“Waqf property belongs to Allah. Muslims have a right to administer such property. The purpose of the Bill is a clear breach of the rights of Muslims to perform their religious duty. It is a violation of Article 26 of the Constitution. The Bill hits the Basic Structure of the Constitution,” he said.

Questioning the new title of the Waqf Bill, UMEED (Unified Waqf Management Empowerment, Efficiency and Development), Banerjee said it was chosen to diminish the historical importance of the term Waqf, which was deeply rooted in religion and Islamic jurisprudence. He said the government had no right to divide the Waqf on caste lines, as no caste was defined for Muslims in the Constitution.

He said the Bill would allow the government to take control of Waqf properties and alleged that a large number of Waqf properties in Rajasthan had been taken over by the government.

Calling the Bill an attack on the Constitution, Gogoi said, “The Bill talks about any person showing or demonstrating that he is practising Islam. People will have to give certificates to the government as to which religion they believe in. Do they ask any other community whether you practise your religion for five years?”

He said permitting any person, and not just a Muslim, to create a Waqf was actually a secular principle, adding that more than two members of the Waqf Board could be women even in the 1995 Act.

“Their eyes are on the properties and lands of a certain community. Tomorrow, they will eye the lands of other communities,” he said.

“They say that courts were powerless after the ruling of the Waqf Tribunal. This is false. The High Court had the power to intervene under the 2013 Act. Under the parent Act, under Section 96, the Centre had the power to give directions to the state governments, who could give directions to the Board in case of injustice. How many times in the last 11 years did you give any direction?” Gogoi said, countering the government’s charge.

Wondering whether the Centre was trying to taint a community that also took part in the freedom struggle, Gogoi said, “Our nationalism is to be united in mutual love for Bharat Mata. It is respect for the Tricolour that you did not respect.”

“Which community do you want to mislead? The same community that fought for India’s independence? The community that sacrificed alongside Mangal Pandey in 1857? You want to tarnish the reputation of a community in which two lakh ulema who were martyred? You want to defame the community which rejected the British divide-and-rule policy? You did not support the Quit India movement, but you seek to defame the community that supported us during the Quit India Movement? You want to stain the name of the community that supported the Dandi March on April 6, 1930?” he said.

A Raja of the DMK said it was ironic that no Muslim MP was saying the Bill would protect the rights of the Muslim community. “They (BJP) don’t have a Muslim MP who can stand and speak in favour of the Bill or pilot the Bill,” he said.