Kochi: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday said the amended Waqf Act was not aimed at the Muslim community but was intended to correct “past mistakes”, and accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of “inciting violence” in her state through her opposition to the implementation of the law.
Rijiju told a press conference here that the government’s intention was to ensure that, in India, there is no provision for anyone to “forcibly and unilaterally” take away someone else’s land.
The Union Minister of Minority Affairs was in Kerala to meet residents of Munambam village in Ernakulam district– mostly Christians — who have strongly supported the BJP-led government at the Centre when it brought in the amendment to the law.
They had alleged that the Waqf Board was unlawfully laying claim to their land and properties, despite having registered deeds and land tax payment receipts.
Rijiju said the Waqf law was amended as certain provisions in it gave “unprecedented power and authority to the Waqf Boards”.
“This is not targeted at Muslim community. It is to correct mistakes of the past and provide justice to the people,” he said.
Rijiju said that the Waqf Board has the largest properties in the world, but despite that the women and the destitute in the Muslim community were allegedly not benefitting from it.
That, coupled with the plight of the Munambam residents, prompted the Narendra Modi government to bring amendments to the Waqf Act, he said.
Responding to a query about the situation in West Bengal, where violence has erupted in various parts in connection with the Waqf Act, Rijiju blamed Chief Minister Banerjee for it.
“The CM is visibly inciting violence by asking people to protest and saying that she will not follow the law passed by the Parliament,” he said.
He also asked how the West Bengal CM can declare she will not implement the amended Waqf Act passed by the Parliament.
“How? How can she say she will not implement it? She is sitting in a constitutional position and the law is passed by a constitutional body, then how can she say that she will not follow something that is constitutional,” he said in response to reporters’ queries regarding Banerjee’s statement that the Act will not be implemented in West Bengal.
Rijiju, who was flanked by Union Minister of State George Kurien and state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that following the amendment, “there will be no arbitrary declaration of a land as Waqf property”.
“Therefore, after the coming of the Act, we are 100 per cent sure and guarantee that cases like that of Munambam will not happen again. It cannot happen,” he said.
At the same time, he also said that the recourse before the people of Munambam was to move the Supreme Court as certain “passing remarks” have been made by the Kerala High Court regarding the issue.
The minister said that the new law would help the residents of Munambam present their claims before the apex court. Chandrasekhar intervened to clarify that while the amended Act was “not a magic wand” to instantly resolve the Munambam issue, it would assist the people there in fighting their case in the Supreme Court.
“It was not possible before,” both he and Rijiju claimed.
Rijiju also said that the central government was in the process of framing rules for the implementation of the amended Act and would soon issue certain directions and suggestions for the Kerala government to follow.
One such suggestion the minister made was that the Kerala government should ask the District Collector of Ernakulam to revisit the entire status of the survey conducted by the Survey Commissioner of the Munambam area.
This would also help bring the issue under the purview of the newly amended Act, as the Munambam matter was being dealt with under the earlier Waqf provisions, the minister said in response to reporters’ queries as to whether the amended law had retrospective effect.
Rijiju’s remarks on the Munambam issue provoked sharp reactions from the Left parties, with CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam claiming that the minister himself had burst, like a soap bubble, the BJP’s claims that the amended Waqf Act was the solution to the problems of the Munambam residents.
In a statement, Viswam also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of being behind the alleged betrayal of the Munambam people.
He further claimed that the Church Bishops had “knowingly or unknowingly” supported efforts to mislead the people.
In the press conference, Rijiju said that strict provisions had been inserted into the Act to ensure that no land is arbitrarily declared a Waqf property.
During the press conference, the Union Minister also accused the Congress and Communist parties in the state of treating minority communities, especially Muslims, as a “vote bank”. He alleged that Congress and Left MPs in Parliament had said that the Muslim vote bank was larger than that of the Christians and that they vote “en bloc”, unlike the Hindu and Christian communities.
“I appeal to my Muslim brothers to not become the vote bank of the Congress and Communist parties. Once you become a vote bank, you are treated like a commodity,” Rijiju said.
