Residents of Munambam in Kerala’s Kochi district form a human chain demanding revenue rights for their land holdings.
| Photo Credit: H VIBHU
The passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in the Lok Sabha has roiled politics in Kerala.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s State president, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, portrayed the Bill as a victory for the beleaguered residents of Munambam in Kochi. Backed by the Church, the predominantly Christian community in Munambam is agitating to restore their revenue rights over the land claimed by the Kerala State Wakf Board, invoking specific provisions of the soon-to-be-redundant Waqf Act, 1995.
Last week, the influential Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) stirred the pot by urging Opposition and ruling front MPs from Kerala to vote for the Bill by adopting a position starkly divergent from the INDIA bloc’s pro-minority political line.
On Thursday, Leader of the Opposition and Congress leader V.D. Satheesan accused the BJP of seeking to put Christians and Muslims at loggerheads with each other by interpreting the Bill through the limited prism of the land dispute. He noted that the Bill had no retrospective effect and hence had scarce bearing on the Munambam land issue.
However, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Opposition could ill afford to ignore that the Munambam imbroglio had gained momentum as an emotively galvanising issue for the Christian community in Kerala, a significant electoral bloc.
The BJP’s attempt to link the Waqf Bill to the Munambam land dispute has put the pro-Christian Kerala Congress parties on either side of the State’s political aisle in a quandary.
Poll talking point
The BJP’s gambit is to render the Munambam land dispute and the Waqf Bill major talking points in the run-up to the Assembly election next year, chiefly as a touchstone of the Congress-led United Democratic Front’s (UDF) commitment to its Christian base.
The Bill’s passage has also come at a difficult time for the Congress’s key ally, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).
IUML State president Panakkad Syed Sadikali Shihab Thangal told reporters in Malappuram that the party would challenge the Bill in the Supreme Court. He expressed solidarity with the Munambam residents’ cause. Nevertheless, the party appeared obliquely critical of the KCBC’s backing for the Centre’s “patently anti-minority” Bill. The IUML warned that the BJP could introduce comparable legislation targeting other minority communities.
The Church also appeared divided over the Bill’s underlying political inspiration. Syro-Malabar Diocese spokesperson Fr. Antony Vadakkekara said the Church could not rule out another comparable Bill aimed at usurping the rights and properties of other minority communities.
Provincial politics
Provincial politics also crept into the Waqf Bill dispute. Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M)-led LDF’s political appointees populated the Kerala Waqf Board and the ruling front could easily persuade the Wakf Board to give up its claim over the land sold by the Farooq College management to Munambam residents.
However, he alleged, the CPI(M) allowed the issue to fester, possibly to undercut the UDF’s secular minority base ahead of the local body polls and the 2026 Assembly election as part of a ‘tactical arrangement’ with the BJP.
LDF convener T.P. Ramakrishnan questioned the Congress’s commitment to protecting minority rights, noting that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the MP from Wayanad, were “absent” during the discussions in Lok Sabha on the Waqf Bill.
The LDF and UDF also sought to stymie the BJP’s attempt to lean on the Bill’s passage to adhere to the State’s Christian community by spotlighting an alleged attack on March 31 on Christians in Jabalpur. Among those injured was Fr. Davies, a priest from the Thrissur district.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the attack. Mr. Satheesan said the BJP’s outreach to Christians in Kerala was patently Janus-faced, given the continuing attacks on the community and vandalisation of its properties in north India.
“Respected Bishops of KCBC and CBCI [Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India] who were eager to support BJP on waqf bill should not be silent over the RSS sponsored attack on Christian faith. May I humbly request them to read Bunch of thoughts [by RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar] in which the Christians are depicted as the ‘internal enemies’ of the country!!” noted Communist Party of India State secretary Binoy Viswam in a post on social media.
Published – April 04, 2025 01:46 am IST
