New Delhi: The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind is holding meetings with opposition leaders as well as members of the Parliament’s joint committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill to impress upon them that the proposed legislation is “unconstitutional” and an “interference” in the religious affairs of the community, the prominent Muslim body said on Monday.
The Jamiat delegations are meeting concerned MPs and emphasizing that if the Bill is passed in its current form, all the properties of Waqf will become “unsafe”.
The committee, chaired by BJP member Jagdambika Pal, will meet representatives of the ministries of minority affairs, and law and justice on August 22, according to a notice from the Lok Sabha secretariat.
The Jamiat said that on the instructions of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani, representatives of the body are continuously meeting leaders of all opposition parties and members of the joint committee on the Bill.
During these meetings, while the delegations are pointing to the wrong and harmful amendments of this Bill, efforts are also being made to detail the harmful effects it can have on Muslims in case the Bill is passed and how Muslims can be deprived of their Waqf properties, the Jamiat said in a statement.
These meetings are being held at both the national and state levels, it said.
A delegation of Jamiat in Maharashtra recently met Mhatre Balya Mama (NCP Sharad Pawar) and Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena UBT), who are members of the parliamentary panel, in Mumbai.
A joint delegation of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind is also going to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on August 20, the statement said.
In other states including Bihar, members are meeting leaders of political parties and the Parliament committee members and telling them about the flaws of the proposed Bill and its “harmful sections”, the statement said.
The Jamiat representatives are meeting the leaders of the Parliament committee to draw their attention to the “dangerous” provisions of this “unconstitutional and unjust Bill”, the statement said.
The concerned MPs are being told that if this Bill is passed in its current form, all the properties of Waqf will become “unsafe”, the Jamiat said.
“Even the claim of Muslims on old mosques, mausoleums, Imam Baras and graveyards, which are Waqf, will be weakened because there is a conspiracy to abolish the Waqf Tribunal and give all the rights to the District Collector,” the Jamiat said in its statement.
Many members of the Parliament’s joint committee do not even know what Waqf is and what are its religious implications, it claimed.
The members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind are giving them complete details in this regard and are also informing the members about the amendments made in the Waqf rules from time to time since Independence, the statement said.
Madani said that the details of the amendments that have come out have turned their apprehension into certainty that the government’s intentions regarding Waqf are “not right”.
“Rather, the new Bill that has been brought in the name of amendments is not aimed at protecting Waqf property but to deprive Muslims of this great heritage that their ancestors have left for the upliftment and welfare of poor, helpless and needy Muslims,” he said.
Madani said the Bill is “blatant interference” in religious matters of Muslims and a “big conspiracy”.
He said Muslims can bear any kind of loss but can never tolerate interference in their Sharia laws.
“This Bill is also an attack on the constitutional rights given to Muslims. The Constitution of the country has given every citizen the right to freely follow his or her religious beliefs and rules along with religious freedom,” he said.
“The present government wants to snatch away this religious freedom given in the Constitution by making various types of laws, one of which is this Waqf (Amendment) Bill,” Madani alleged.
The Bill is the first major initiative from the BJP-led NDA government aimed at reforming the registration process for Waqf properties through a centralised portal.
It proposes several reforms, including establishing a Central Waqf Council alongside state Waqf Boards with representation to Muslim women and non-Muslim representatives.
A contentious provision of the Bill is the proposal to designate the district collector as the primary authority in determining whether a property is classified as Waqf or government land.
The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 8 and referred to a joint committee of Parliament after a heated debate, with the government asserting the proposed law, did not intend to interfere with the functioning of mosques and the Opposition calling it an attack on the Constitution.
