All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) General Secretary Maulana Mohammed Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi, left, and AIMPLB spokesperson Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas address a press conference regarding the central government’s Waqf (Amendment) Bill, in New Delhi, on March 11, 2025
| Photo Credit: PTI
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s (AIMPLB) bid to rally the allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party in its attempts to foil the proposed changes to the Waqf Bill has borne limited results. The board’s large scale public meetings in Vijayawada and Patna earlier this week failed to get encouraging response from the regional parties ruling the States there. Both the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) decided to have “no truck” with the AIMPLB meetings.
The board’s dharna in Vijaywada met with resistance from the ruling TDP. “Only the local people could come to attend the protest against the waqf Bill. The government stopped the buses coming in from the neighbouring towns,” alleged SQR Ilyas, spokesman of the AIMPLB.
Incidentally, Chandrababu Naidu’s representatives on the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waqf mooted six amendments. Only three amendments were finally accepted. “One amendment has made things worse for the waqf boards. The replacement of the Collector with a special officer doesn’t help the cause,” Mr. Ilyas told The Hindu. The only notable benefit of the TDP’s suggestion was the acceptance of the Waqf by User formula without any retrospective effect. “The Bill had mooted the Waqf by User clause for all endowments. Now, whatever has been given as Waqf stays as it is. Only the future endowments will come under the clause,“ Mr. Ilyas said, adding, “We need much better support from the BJP allies. This Bill is like the announcement of a war against the community. It is a matter of life and death for us. The regional parties cannot take our support for granted.”
‘Biggest attack on Muslims’
Calling the proposed amendments to the waqf Bill “the biggest attack on Muslims since 1947”, Mr. Ilyas rued that even the JD(U) remained non-committal on the waqf issue. “We held a massive protest in Patna yesterday where virtually all Muslim bodies sent in their representatives, be it the Ahl-e-Hadith Jamaat, Imarat-e-Shariah, Jamaat-e-Islami or Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, everybody was united in denouncing the amendments mooted.” Conspicuous by their absence were the leaders of the JD(U) and Chirag Paswan’s Jan Lok Shakti Party.
The AIMPLB, however, got staunch support from two leading Muslim outfits, including the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, which issued separate statements in support. Arshad Madani, president of the Jamiat, launched a tirade against the government, alleging that “Muslims are being forced to come to the streets to reclaim their rights”. “For the past 12 years, Muslims have shown great patience. However, now, when the concerns of Muslims regarding waqf properties are being disregarded, and an unconstitutional law is being forcibly imposed, there remains no other option but to protest. Peaceful protest for one’s religious rights is the democratic right of every citizen in the country,” Mr. Madani said. The AIMPLB plans to hold a large-scale protest on the subject on March 17 in New Delhi.
Mr. Madani stated, “Since the introduction of the waqf Amendment Bill, we have made every possible effort to convince the government that waqf is a purely religious matter. Waqf properties are donations made by our ancestors for the welfare of the community. There was also a pretence of referring the Bill to a joint parliamentary committee. The suggestions of the Opposition party members were rejected.” The Jamiat decided at its working committee meeting to authorise its State units to approach the respective High Courts if the waqf Bill becomes a law. “The government wants to take away the rights granted to Muslims by the country’s Constitution by bringing a new Waqf Amendment Act. Along with fighting the law, the Jamiat will use all democratic and constitutional means to counter it,” he said.
Meanwhile, JIH’s vice-president Salim Engineer expressed disappointment at the “partisan role played by the JPC in collecting feedback from the stakeholders”. “We are disappointed with the parties who claim to be secular but still supported the waqf Bill. We endorse the AIMPLB call for protest at Jantar Mantar on March 17 to oppose the waqf Bill,” Mr. Engineer said.
Published – March 11, 2025 08:08 pm IST