Prof Ram Puniyani
THE Waqf Amendment Bill was recently passed in Parliament. It is also called ‘Unified Waqf Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development Act (1995), UMMID in short. In the wake of the passage of the Bill, Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stated that after this, religious properties of other communities will be targeted. He was on the dot as immediately after the passage of the bill, the RSS mouthpiece Organiser published an article about the property of the Catholic Church. Though it immediately withdrew the article, the message was loud and clear.
One Jharkhand minister expressed her anguish that the RSS-BJP will now target the Adivasi properties. Who will be next in line? During the debate on the bill, allies like Nitish Kumar, Chandrababu Naidu, Chirag Paswan, and Jayant Chowdhary also fell in line with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and betrayed the Muslim community in the worst possible way. Had they any principles of pluralism they could very well stopped the bill from getting the parliamentary nod.
As Pastor Martin Niemoller’s classic anguish shows the methods of fascists are to target one group at a time with the help of others and then crush other communities. The case of Catholic Bishops is also in line with the same philosophy; they enthusiastically supported the Waqf Bill, but tragically they may be the next in line. They are a strange group, deeply infested by Islamophobia and so in a shortsighted manner are supporting the communal strategies.
Waqf is a property donated by Muslims (even others can donate) for religious purposes. India has a vast property which comes under this provision. While claims are that Waqf is the third largest property owner in the country as such, Hindu trusts and temples have much more property. The present amendments in the Waqf are totally dictated by the Hindu nationalist agenda to diminish the control of Muslims in the Waqf Boards.
The control of Hindu temples and trusts is exclusively in the hands of Hindus. Now Waqf, in contrast, will have non-Muslims on the board and the district collector will be the main authority in issues related to ownership of any given property. The contrast between the ownership of Hindu trusts and Waqf is absolutely partisan and the government is determined to undermine the authority of Muslims in these matters.
Minister for Minorities Affairs Kiran Rijuju, in his speech introducing the Bill, said the provision is aimed at bettering the condition of poor Muslims. Waqf as such is for religious and social purposes. Poverty alleviation is the job of the government, and this government in particular has washed its hands off on this issue. Be it Muslims or Hindus or poor from other communities all government policies are directed to serve big corporates.
If his logic is correct why not begin with the majority Hindu community? Our Hindu temples and trusts have astronomical wealth which can nurture many educational institutions, and health facilities and support employment generation. Why is this government, guided by the RSS agenda of the Hindu nation, not undertaking the task of ensuring that temple trust properties are used to help poor farmers, unemployed youth and other marginalised sections of society?
Rijuju claimed that many poor Muslims have thanked him for undertaking this! Good joke! Thousands of Muslim organisations have registered their opposition to the legislation which the BJP is imposing on the country to reduce the power of the Muslim community.
As far as democratic and secular values are concerned, BJP cares the least about them. Its visible tears for the plight of Muslims in India will even shame the crocodiles. It is Muslims who have been the worst victims ever since the BJP started ruling at the Centre. They are being beaten for offering Namaz on roads, being targeted for eating beef, being boycotted in Hindu festivals or on the pretext of ‘Corona Jihad’ or ‘Spitting Jihad’ among others. Despite clear Supreme Court guidelines, states are using bulldozers against Muslim properties with impunity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi put a copy of the Constitution on his forehead as a mark of respect. It was against the backdrop of the 2024 general elections when the INDIA bloc leaders carried copies of the Constitution as the major symbol of their poll campaign. For the BJP, the Constitution is a mere showpiece. In Uttar Pradesh, anyone opposing the Waqf bill will have to furnish a bond of Rs 2 lakhs; so much for our democratic rights in this regime!
The Waqf Amendment Bill totally violates the Constitution in letter and spirit. P Chidambaram summarises it well “…Courts have recognised a waqf that was created by a non-Muslim, and examples are many. Further, under the existing law, a Waqf is, by and large, independent and autonomous. The highest regulatory body in a state is the Board of Waqfs which consists of members who are all Muslims and the Chief Executive Officer is required to be a Muslim. The Board in the exercise of its powers is required to “act in conformity with the directions of the Waqf, the purposes of the Waqf, and any usage or custom of the Waqf. The only body that has adjudicatory jurisdiction over Waqf(s) is a tribunal which is a judicial body presided over by a District Judge.”
The bill introduced by the BJP stands its spirit on the head and totally smashes its original purpose. This is one more step to intimidate and disempower the Muslims. The question of corruption in matters of Waqf is a serious issue. The Anna-Kejriwal campaign for Jan Lokpal has demonstrated that such methods don’t work. What can remove the corruption from the body politic of our institutions is by making them more transparent and democratic. This applies not only to Waqf but also to most of the religious organisations controlling wealth and land.
The jumping in of Organiser with the article on Catholic prosperities reminds us that those supporting the assault on the Muslim community should not be under the illusion that they can save themselves by supporting the attacks on other minorities.
While protests among the Muslim community are picking up all those believing in democratic and plural values need to support these, and stand in solid unity with them. The turncoats, those for power and pelf for their selfish interests stand exposed and hopefully, the countrymen will rise in the forthcoming elections and other campaigns to show them their place in the dustbin of our history.
———
Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and a former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
