All India Muslim Personal law Board (AIMPLB) has said that the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024 is a conspiracy to usurp waqf properties all over the country and appealed to secular parties within the BJP-led NDA government and all opposition parties not to allow this Bill in Parliament. The board also appealed to the government to withdraw and Bill immediately and warned to launch a nationwide protest against the Bill if necessary.
AIMPLB is the umbrella body of prominent Muslim organisations of various Muslim denominations in India.
Addressing media persons at the Constitution Club of India here on Thursday, the Muslim leaders said that a delegation of AIMPLB recently called on NDA constituents – Nitish Kumar of JD(U) and Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and asked them to use their influence over the BJP-led NDA government and ensure that the Bill was withdrawn.
Prominent among those who addressed mediapersons included AIMPLB president Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, board’s vice-presidents Jamaat-e-Islami Hind president Syed Sadatullah Husaini and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (Arshad faction) president Maulana Syed Arshad Madani. Jamiat Ahle Hadis president Maulana Asghar Ali Imam Mahadi Salafi was also present ion the media briefing.
Maulana Rahmani said that the board had asked the NDA allies – JD(U) and TDP – not to support the Bill. He claimed that the leaders of the two parties have assured that they would oppose the Bill when it is tabled in Parliament for discussion. He said that opposition party leaders like Tejaswi Yadav of RJD, Tamilnadu chief minister and DMK leadwer M K Stalin and Udhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena (UT) had already given assurance to the board that they would strongly oppose the Bill.
The board president said that the board would use all legal and democratic means alongwith other minorities like Sikhs and fair-minded people to bring pressure on the government to drop the Bill. If necessary, he said that the board might also launch a nationwide democratic movement within the parametres of the Constitution to bring pressure on the govenrment to reject the proposed Bill.
In response to a question JIH president Syed Sadatullah Huisaini said that the provisions contained in the Bill clearly indicated that its intention is not to bring transparency and safeguard waqf properties but to introduce mismanagement in waqf with a view to destroy waqf properties and pave the way for their encroachment.
Answering media queries, Maulana Rahmani echoed the views of Mr Husaini and said that there was a consensus among Muslim leaders that the very objective of the Bill is to cause damage to Muslim interest. “The government first bulldozed Muslim houses, and now they want to grab Muslim properties,” he alleged.
The Muslim leaders strongly objected to the bid to change the structure of the Central Waqf Council and the Waqf Board by allowing appointment of non-Muslims in these bodies. They said that only members of their own community were allowed to be appointed in managing bodies of Hindu mutts and Sikh Gurudwaras. So, why non-Muslims be appointed in waqf boards that manages waqf properties which is totally a religious matter.
They said that the proposed bill had given powers to the district collector to decide the status of waqf properties and settle the disputes about waqf properties by abolishing the role of waqf-appointed Survey Commissioner and Waqf Tribunal. They said this was a damgerous provision that would enable takeover of the waqf properties in case of a dispute over a property between the government and the waqf board.
Another threatening aspect of the proposed Bill, the Muslim leaders pointed out, was the abolition of the “Waqf by user”, an important point in Islamic law which was recognised by the Waqf Act 1995.
The leaders of Muslim religious parties said that this would open options for communal elements to make claims over mosques and other waqf properties like madrasa, dargahs, qabristan existing for centuries but not entered in revenue records as waqf property. They said that it would lead to litigation and illegal usurpation by state authorities if the proposed Bill became a law. The Bill is currently under consideration before a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
The Muslim leaders said there was no logic behind imposing a condition in the proposed Bill that only a person practicing Islam for at least five years could waqf his/her property.
They also objected to a provision that prohibited non-Muslims from dedicating his/her property as a waqf. But at the same time, the proposed Bill makes it mandatory for inclusion of non-Muslims in Central Waqf Council and Waqf Board as members.
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