New Delhi [India]: Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson criticized AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday for misleading the public with his comments and for running a modus operandi related to the Waqf Amendment Bill.
“Owaisi Ji should answer that why is he against the poor muslims? “…Section 40 of the Waqf Act gives the power to the Waqf board to declare any property under Waqf. You will have to go to the Waqf Board if you appeal. What kind of justice is this? This country runs through the Constitution, not by any religious doctrine. And in such a country, in any civil case, one has to go to the civil court…That’s why it is important the amend this Act,” BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said while speaking to the media.
“We have seen how Waqf has tried to encroach on the lands of farmers in Karnataka…Where there is a Congress government, the lands are being given to the Waqf. It is important to stop this. The land encroachment by Waqf is unconstitutional,” he added,
Notably, 41 farmers of Honwada village located in Tikota taluk of Vijaypur district of Karnataka were recently sent a notice by the Waqf Board, in which it was claimed that their 1500 acres of land is the property of the Waqf Board.
AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday criticised the Modi government’s proposed Waqf ammendment bill, questioning the mandatory inclusion of two non-Muslim members in the central Waqf Council.
Owaisi questioned that if Muslims cannot be trustees of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) then how can a non-Muslim be in the Waqf board?
Addressing a press conference AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, “Not even a single member of the 24 members of TTD Board (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams) is a non-Hindu…The new Chairman of TTD says that the people working there should be Hindu…We are not against this, we just have an objection to the fact that Narendra Modi’s government is saying in the proposed bill of Waqf that in the central Waqf Council, it has been made mandatory that 2 non-Muslim members should be there…Why are you bringing this provision in the Waqf bill? TTD is a board of the Hindu religion and Waqf Board is for the Muslim religion. There should be parity…When the trustees of TTD cannot be Muslims, how will a non-Muslim member be on the Waqf Board?”
The Waqf Act, 1995, which was created to regulate waqf properties, has long faced allegations of mismanagement, corruption and encroachments. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha this August, seeks to bring sweeping reforms, introducing digitisation, stricter audits, transparency and legal mechanisms to reclaim illegally occupied properties.
Notices were sent to the farmers, in which it was said that this land was marked as Waqf property. However, the farmers said that there is no dargah of this name in their village and this land is the ancestral property of their families.
However, following protests by people, the Karnataka government decided to withdraw the notice issued by the Wakf Board after it arbitrarily claimed 1,500 acres of farmers’ land.