OPINION | Is new Waqf law good for commonfolk Muslims?

Leaders of Muslim outfits who gathered at Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium on Tuesday, at the call of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, vowed to continue their agitation until the recently enacted Waqf law is withdrawn. AIMPLB has planned a series of countrywide agitations on this issue. Meanwhile, Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, an Islamic scholar in his own right, has questioned the agitation. He raised questions on why Waqf Boards during the last seven decades did not build schools and hospitals on Waqf properties and instead leased them out to commercial shops, malls and hotels. Khan said, the Holy Quran does say that every pious Muslim should help the poor and the needy, but there is no mention of the word ‘Waqf’ in the Holy Quran. He said, Maulanas should learn from Christian missionaries who used charities for building good hospitals and schools. Arif Mohammad Khan is right. Shopping complexes, malls, residential societies, five five-star hotels have been built on prime location Waqf properties in most of the cities of India. In Patna’s Dak Bungalow area, nearly 30 Waqf properties worth several thousand crores of rupees have either been leased out for a pittance or have been sold to builders who made shopping complexes. In Karnataka, the Waqf Board has rented out 14,855 buildings for commercial use. Out of these 1,672 buildings are in Bengaluru, but they earn hardly Rs 77 crore annually as rent. On one parcel of Waqf land, a five-star hotel came up in Bengaluru. Former Karnataka Minorities Commission chief Anwar Manippadi, in his report, has said that nearly 29,000 acres of Waqf land were leased out by muthawallis (caretakers) for a pittance. Muslims should realise what Arif Mohammad Khan has pointed out. The word ‘Waqf’ is not there in the Holy Quran, but Maulanas are linking the Waqf issue with religion.  Arif Mohammad Khan has said, the Waqf Boards did not build hospitals and schools on Waqf properties and instead leased them at throwaway rates. The ultimate sufferers are the poor Muslims who need help. Had the Waqf Boards done their work efficiently, there would have been no reason to amend the old Waqf Act. This point must be kept in mind in the ongoing debate on this controversial issue.

Murshidabad, Mamata, Muslims and rehabilitation

Days after Muslim mobs ran riot and indulged in arson and stoning targeting Hindu houses in Murshidabad, nearly three hundred Hindu families, who had fled to Malda, have returned now only to find their homes completely reduced to ashes. Hindus in Murshidabad are still living in fear. While Mamata Banerjee’s government forced Hindus to return, Hindus alleged that no arrangements have been made for their food and drinking water. The authorities have only erected tents for them to stay under the open sky. Old and infirm people, children and women are living in those tents. The homeless Hindus have alleged that Mamata’s government is busy in image-building to tell the world that the refugees have returned, but the ground realities are stark. Meanwhile, a video has surfaced showing a Muslim mob dragging Hargobinda Das and his son Chandan Das from their home in Murshidabad on April 12 and brutally murdering them in broad daylight. The relatives of this family in Jaffrabad alleged that they rang up the police frantically, but the police did not turn up.  Since there are self-regulation rules in the media about telecasting gruesome videos, I was unable to show the full video in my show ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ on Monday night. The images are blood-curdling. The video also shows how poor Hindus were forced to flee their homes out of fear and how they were practically forced by authorities to return. The visuals can make anybody weep. I would like to appeal to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to take care of these poor, homeless families immediately and help them in rebuilding their homes, and provide them with food and security. Mamata Banerjee, as Chief Minister, belongs to the people of West Bengal and not to a particular community or a section of the people.

Is Rahul maligning India’s image on foreign soil?

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has raised questions about the credibility of the Election Commission during his USA visit. He said, The Election Commission is “compromised”. He has alleged, “More people voted in Maharashtra than the total number of people in Maharashtra, and this is a fact… the Election Commission gave us a figure in the evening around 5:30 p.m., and in two hours around 7:30 p.m., 65 lakh voters had voted, which is physically impossible…There is something very wrong with the system.”  He alleged that when Congress demanded video footage of voting at the polling stations, the EC, instead of sharing footage, changed the rules about the sharing of footage. Rahul Gandhi has repeated in the US what he has been alleging during the last five months in India. BJP objected to this saying, making “slanderous remarks” against a Constitutional body on foreign soil does not behove the Leader of Opposition. Rahul Gandhi is blaming his alliance’s defeat in Maharashtra on “irregularities” committed by the Election Commission. But his arguments are themselves irregular and erratic.

On January 18, Rahul Gandhi had said, there was a difference of nearly 1 crore voters between the 2025 Lok Sabha poll figure and the subsequent assembly poll figure.  It means there was an increase in the number of voters by nearly one crore. On February 3, he said in Parliament that the number of new voters in Maharashtra was 70 lakh. The Election Commission figure says that it was only 40 lakhs. When the Congress party filed its complaint with the Election Commission, it said, the number of voters increased by 47 lakh. The Election Commission then provided a detailed reply running into 66 pages. Time and space constraints do not permit me to share EC’s reply here, but the main point was: EC rejected Congress’ allegations as baseless. Instead, the EC pointed out that there was a rise of more than 28 lakh voters in Maharashtra within 2 months during the 2019 elections. When Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes Congress, formed its government in Maharashtra in 2019, nobody raised any question about this rise in the number of voters. The picture is clear. Rahul Gandhi is not only misleading his own party, but also maligning India’s image. 

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