By Sushil Kutty
Over 9 lakh acres of India is Waqf owned and “once Waqf, always Waqf” is the unwritten code, brought to India straight from Heaven. Hence, AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal cannot be blamed for claiming land on which India’s new Parliament building stands as Waqf. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Sengol’ can take a break! Now, if all the Waqf land all over India was a single unbroken landmass, a separate Waqf country could have been declared.
Maybe it will, one day, and then there wouldn’t be a need to build a Parliament building for Waqf country. The problem is Waqf properties are scattered across the length and breadth of India. This includes rivers, lakes, ponds, waterfalls, hot-water springs, mountains, hills, hairpin bends, cities, towns and villages. Also ‘kabristans’ and acres and acres of mosques. A Waqf country, from top to bottom, will have to wait.
Till then, not only Badruddin Ajmal but also AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and the Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi, will accuse the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government of attempting to grab Waqf properties, deprive Muslims the right to live off Allah’s bounty, with the Bill to amend the Waqf Board Act.
The question is asked, why the Waqf Board Amendment Bill 2024? Is it to polarize the electorate for electoral benefits? The Modi government brought in the Triple Talaq Act to build a vote-bank of Muslim women. It didn’t succeed, fully. The Waqf Board Amendment Bill 2024 is to differentiate and divide Muslims into those who benefit from the current status of the Waqf Board Act and those Muslims who do not.
It is another attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create a Muslim vote-bank for the BJP. He is an obstinate politician, stubborn and fixed on ideas. Modi is like the hardworking ant in the Longfellow poem, keep trying… Modi wants the left-out sects of Islam to get the benefits of Waqf and one day choose to vote for the BJP.
He won’t succeed. But Waqf is also beyond poll considerations alone, it is about the gradual appropriation of India; it is a work in progress, the ramifications of which will be known only when certain set goals are accomplished.
After Partition, some Muslims didn’t take the train to Pakistan. Those who fled left their homes and lands in India vacant. Partition was on religious lines. But while the homes and lands of Hindus/Sikhs, who fled the newly-formed Pakistan, were given to Muslims fleeing India, the same principle was not applied here in India.
There were also the “secular Muslims” left in India to take care of. The Waqf Board got almost all the evacuee properties. Badruddin Ajmal and Asaduddin Owaisi are today claiming 60% of Delhi, including IGIA and Parliament House. Samajwadi Party’s Abu Azmi wants MPs to pay rent. Shadab Chouhan of the ‘Peace Party’ says, “Don’t worry we’ll waive off the rent!”
No wonder Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is dismissive about India. Trudeau has only contempt for the rulers of India. Canada’s foreign minister, a lady with the surname ‘Joly’, says Indian diplomats who haven’t been expelled should know “they’re on notice.”
Fact is, no other nation’s land, rivers, mountains, cities, towns, villages, historical monuments, modern skyscrapers, airports and billionaires’ residences, are claimed by a private body of a particular religious denomination. Search the United Nations compound in New York and there wouldn’t be a single flag flying of a ‘Waqf country.’
Not even Pakistan is Waqf territory. A similar situation and Pakistanis would revolt. There would be blood in the street. But Pakistan is Islamic. So, there is no need for “land jihad”. An attempt to claim the Taj Mahal as Waqf was thwarted. Wait till the Lal Qila is claimed as Waqf and the Prime Minister is charged a fee for occupying the ramparts of the Red Fort for unfurling the Tricolour!
The Waqf is not about charity alone, it is a necessity to get on the top of the situation. Waqf land has been continuously increasing and widening its ambit, quietly and silently, with certain governments of the day, driven by vote-bank appeasement, helping with amenable amendments to the Waqf Board Act.
Which other religious denomination has the equivalent of the Waqf Board? M/s Badruddin Ajmal and Asaduddin Owaisi can claim Delhi for Waqf, and a 1500-year-old temple in Tamil Nadu, a village in Bihar and Golf Links and Mangolpuri in Delhi. Can a Hindu Assamese ask Badruddin Ajmal about ‘Miya-Muslims’ trespassing on the native Assamese’s land.
There are Muslims in Delhi who have been clamouring for the “return of Malviya Nagar and Press Enclave” for decades. “There are voices and a list of Waqf properties across the world is out – the Parliament building, surrounding areas, and areas around Vasant Vihar…People also say that the airport is on Waqf property,” Badruddin Ajmal said. “It is bad to use the Waqf land without permission. They (NDA) will lose their Ministry (government) very soon over this Waqf Board issue.”
Opposition parties agree. Muslims may have little presence in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, but the land under the feet of the MPs, every inch of it, is Waqf. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has received complaints of gross violations of JPC rules. Waqf JPC chairperson Jagdambika Pal is up to his neck in complaints.
The question is, can a secular country allow itself to slip into the hands of a single religious denomination because there is something called ‘Waqf’ and there are assertions like ‘Once Waqf, always Waqf’, and the equally dubious ‘Waqf by user’?
A word that has been trending of late is ‘indigenous’. The second Monday of October is ‘Indigenous People’s Day’. Going by Waqf, the ‘indigenous people of India’ have the first right on India’s land mass, on her mountains, rivers, gorges, valleys, waterfalls, springs, forests, farmland, villages, towns, cities, et al – from the tip of Kanyakumari to the topmost peak in Kashmir. ‘Indigenous’ means “of, relating to, or descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a place and especially of a place that was colonized.” The word comes from the Latin ‘indigenia’, meaning “native.” (IPA Service)