Waqf Amendment Bill: Hidden Agenda to Further ‘Pulverize’ Indian Muslims
The latest move by the BJP government to make amendments to the Waqf Act of 1995 is on the lines of the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Citizen Register (NCR) which has a huge bearing on Indian Muslims
The latest move by the BJP government to make amendments to the Waqf Act of 1995 is on the lines of the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Citizen Register (NCR) which has a huge bearing on Indian Muslims.
The proposed bill wants to bring 44 amendments to the existing Act. The new bill likes to revoke several clauses in the laws governing Waqf boards.
No wonder the proposed amendments have evoked severe criticism from the Muslim community. The hidden agenda for bringing the Wakf Amendment bill is to census the Wakf properties settled in 1947 once again.
This necessity has arisen because several Muslim sites that are listed as wakf properties like the mosque in Varanasi, Iddgah in Mathura, the Kamāl Maula Mosque ( Bhojshala) in Dhar in Madhya Pradesh, etc. are demanded by the Hindutva forces to be given to the Hindu community. However, since such sites are declared as Wakaf properties they can't be touched.
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It is to undo the Wakf properties that are exclusive to the Muslim community that such a bill is being proposed. The general perception among the Muslim community about the proposed Bill is the BJP government wants control of the Waqf properties to nationalize them and rob the Muslims of the assets that belong to them.
There has been a long-standing demand by the Muslim community that Wakf properties should be organized on the line of the Gurudawara Act of 1925 and freed from government control.
Muslims argue that there is so much Wakf property all over India, that if Muslims are given the control to govern, the poor community can take care of their problems without showing their begging bowl to the government of the day. In such a case Muslims won’t look at the government’s largesse for their development.
However, the successive governments have not been receptive to such a demand by the Muslims to create such a body due to its political repercussions.
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The thinking goes that the formation of a Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee like body for Muslims can create a political party similar to the Srimoni Akali Dal that holds considerable political power in Punjab.
The government fears that giving such autonomy to the Wakf Board may lead to Muslims being organized under a pan-India identity which may be a problem for any future government and the issue of Muslim identity politics may fang again.
Here it needs to be mentioned that the Wakf properties are listed in the Muslim Awqaf Board Register in every state of India. They are in the form of several mosques, graveyards, Takia (burial place of a Sufi saint) Khanqah, schools, orphanages, Idgah, etc.
If Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to ascertain the monetary value of the Wakaf properties, the safest conclusion could be why Muslims are so poor in India, when they are so rich! This is because there is a deliberate attempt to keep them poor by the successive ruling dispensation in the country.
If the true value of the wakf properties are made public it can be safely said that Indian Muslims do not need any dole from the Ministry of Minority Affairs, for scholarships or Haj subsidies, etc. They can manage their financial woes from their assets.
However, the fact remains that many of the Wakf properties are encroached upon and have been swallowed by the land-grabbing mafia or are under litigation.
The BJP government instead of sorting out such problems wants to make amendments to the Wakf Act to further complicate the problems that lay undernith it.
The proposed Wakf Amendment Bill has come under criticism by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi who has said that the BJP government's proposed amendment to the Waqf Board Act is against the fundamental right of freedom of religion. The government wants to take away the autonomy of the Wakf board and likes to compromise its independent sanctity.
[The writer, Syed Ali Mujtaba, is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com. The featured image used here is generated by AI.]
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