Asaduddin Owaisi criticises Naidu, Nitish, Paswan for stance on Waqf Bill

Hyderabad

Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi criticised National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners N. Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar, Chirag Paswan, and Jayant Chaudhary, for their stance on the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024, and said that “people will never forgive them”.

Addressing a public meeting at Masjid Vazir Ali, as part of the Jalsa Youm-ul-Quran on the last Friday of Ramzan, Mr. Owaisi, also the AIMIM president, expressed concern that the Bill could have significant implications for Waqf properties and Islamic jurisprudence.

The public meeting was moved from Mecca Masjid to Masjid Vazir Ali on short notice due to the model code of conduct.

“You are giving permission to BJP to attack our Sharia. If these four leaders say that this Bill should not be passed, then it will not be passed,” he said.

Describing the Waqf Amendment Bill as a “black law”, Mr. Owaisi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was targeting the faith and religious institutions of Muslims. “Through this law, Mr. Modi is shooting at our chests and our faith, and at the chests of masjids, dargahs, and khanqahs,” he said.

Mr. Owaisi questioned the provisions of the proposed amendment, pointing out that while only Hindus can be members of temple management boards and only Sikhs can be members of gurdwara management committees, the Bill allows non-Muslims to be part of Waqf Boards.

He further criticised a clause in the Bill which, he claimed, would enable individuals who have been in possession of Waqf properties for 12 years to claim ownership, asserting that waqf properties belong to Allah. He also warned that district collectors, “to please political masters”, could rule that disputed properties are not waqf.

He cited the example of a masjid near Parliament, which the government claims as its property while the Waqf Board lays stake to its ownership. “If a collector is called, he could simply declare that it is not a masjid,” he said.

He claimed that the Bill’s objective was to facilitate the usurping of Waqf lands. He criticised the removal of sections related to evacuee property. “The intention is clear: to take away Muslim properties. This is part of the Hindutva agenda, to prevent us from following our Sharia and our religion. The Bill is in violation of Articles 14, 15, 26, and 29 of the Constitution,” he said.

Turning his attention to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Mr. Owaisi criticised him for allegedly stating in a podcast that Hindus were unsafe in areas where Muslims outnumbered them. “In Bharat, Hindus are not in danger from Muslims, and Muslims are not in danger from Hindus. If anyone is a danger to Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and the Constitution, it is the RSS, its ideology, and people like Yogi and Modi,” he said.

Mr Owaisi accused the BJP of using communal rhetoric to divert attention from pressing issues. “We did not call Babur. Somebody else did. It was Ibrahim Lodi’s brother and Rana Sanga who invited him to India,” he said. He also raised concerns over the disparity in judicial treatment, noting that politically powerful individuals like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, BRS leader K. Kavitha, were granted bail but others like Shifa-ur-Rahman, Tahir Hussain and Gulfisha Fatima were denied bail.

Wading into the stand-up comic Kunal Kamra’s special, Mr Owaisi sought to know from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and PM Modi whether the homes of the miscreants who vandalised the would be demolished.