All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) President, Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rehmani slammed the Waqf Amendment Bill in an event at UP’s Kanpur. Shedding light on the bill the president said that he would keep opposing the bill and the AIMPLB members are ready to take risks to stop this.
“It is a matter of life and death for us, and we should stop it (Waqf bill) at all costs. If needed, the Muslims of the country will fill the jails in such a way that the government will not have any place to house criminals,” he told the media.
Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rehmani further said that the members of ALIMPLB would not hesitate to devote their lives to stop the autocracy because the government is trying to “limit the rights” while many properties belonging to the Waqf are illegally occupied by unauthorized forces.
“If non-Muslims manage Waqf boards, will they care about your mosques and graveyards? The result will be that your land will be taken away. This is a very dangerous law,” said the president.
The Waqf Amendment Bill was presented on July 28 in parliament between blistering criticisms over the clauses after which it was sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The presented roadmap is an attempt to change the terms and clauses which were protected under the Waqf Bill of 1995 regarding the religious welfare and property rights of the Indian Muslim community.
An Amendment Against The Muslim Community
Amid the mounting attacks on the properties of Muslims across India and Hindutva protests to grab Waqf land in different states, this amendment is being perceived as arbitrary, inciting criticisms from the minority sect and concerned Muslim leaders. On the other hand, Hindutva organisations like the RSS, the VHP, Bajrang Dal and others have jointly been spreading rumours amid masses regarding the Waqf to pollute its image and have falsely been labelling it as “Kala Qanoon”.
Responding to the act, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that BJP-RSS is spreading propaganda that Waqf is not a private but a government property and there are 90,40,000 acres of land but these are donated properties and the new amendment would be a violation of article 26.
By the same token, Jamiat Ulma-E-Hind’s president also criticised the act.
“We cannot accept any amendment in the waqf (endowment) law which would change the status of the waqf and the purpose of waqif (Donor). It seems that by these amendments, the government wants to change the status and nature of waqf to make it easy to seize. The intention of the government is bad, it wants to interfere in our religious matters, and it wants to usurp billions of properties of Muslims,” the president of Jamiat Ulma-E-Hind, Arshad Madani posted on X.
Muslims perceive this amendment as regressive which can abolish their rights over their heritage properties which were donated in the name of Almighty Allah and in service of the community.
This act can also “officially decriminalize” the illegal encroachments by the non-Muslims on the land of Muslims.
Not Inclusive But Regressive
The Amendment Bill intends to rename the bill as “United Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act, 1995”.
Under the arbitrary attempts in the name of “uniformity” and “inclusion”, the amendment act presents a set of tools to officially control the property allotment system by the government and Hindutva regime of PM Narendra Modi. The amendment presents the roadmap of elections and the selection process to decide MPs, MLAs, MLC, and bar council members along with “2 non-Muslim members” on board who would be “appointed to control the activities”.
However, the proposal underlines Muslim women’s participation but it would neither ensure equality nor the security of the Muslim community as the amendment focuses on abolishing section 40 of the previous law which would snatch “power and right” from Waqf to decide if a property falls under its territory.
Apart from this clause 15 aims to appoint a CEO by the state government to decide on the process, decision, and proceedings of the Waqf.
Minority rights activists and Indian Muslims describe it as a “draconian, regressive and arbitrary” law due to the exhibited polarised shift of power and fascist interference by Narendra Modi’s BJP government which has frequently been active in targeted and planned attacks on the property rights of Muslims.
