New Delhi:
Shredding Pakistan for its comments on the Waqf (Amendment) Act, which was passed by Parliament on April 4 and got the President’s assent a day later, India has said the country has no standing on the issue and should look at its own “abysmal record” in protecting the rights of minorities.
“We strongly reject the motivated and baseless comments made by Pakistan on the Waqf Amendment Act enacted by the Parliament of India. Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on a matter that is internal to India. Pakistan would do better to look at its own abysmal record when it comes to protecting the rights of minorities, instead of preaching to others,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday.
The Waqf Bill cleared Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha comfortably, albeit after heated debates, on consecutive days and got the President’s nod on April 5. The government has said the Act is about property and management, not religion, and argued that a very large amount of land had been taken over in the name of Waqf.
Many of these properties, the government said, were mismanaged and used to line the pockets of a few instead of helping the poor and the larger community as the donors intended.
“If Waqf properties had been used honestly, Muslim youths wouldn’t need to earn a livelihood by repairing bicycle punctures. But only a few land mafia benefited from these properties. This mafia was looting lands belonging to Dalit, backward sections and widows. The loot of the poor will stop after these changes to the Waqf law. Under the new Waqf law, land or property belonging to tribals cannot be touched by the Waqf Board. Poor Muslims and Pasmanda Muslims will get their rights. This is real social justice,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
The opposition, however, alleged that the BJP-led government was trying to dilute the Constitution, defame and disenfranchise minorities and divide society, effectively launching a “4D attack” on the Constitution.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also symbolically “tore” a copy of the Bill during the debate in the Lok Sabha.
“If you read history, you would see that he (Mahatma Gandhi) said about the laws of white South Africa, ‘My conscience doesn’t accept this’ and he tore it up. Like Gandhi, I am also tearing up this law,” he had said.
There have also been violent protests against the Act, especially in West Bengal, and at least three people have died.
Provisions
According to the Act, trusts created by Muslims under any law will no longer be considered Waqf. Only people who have been practising Muslims for at least five years can dedicate property they own to Waqf and women must receive their inheritance before such properties are declared Waqf – with special provisions for widows, divorced women and orphans.
The Act states that only a senior state government official above the rank of collector will investigate government properties claimed as Waqf and would have the final say on whether a property belongs to the Waqf board or the government in case of a dispute. Any government property identified as Waqf will cease to be so, the Act states.
Non-Muslims will also be made members of the central and state Waqf boards.
