– Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad Naqvi, General Secretary of Majlis-e-Ulema-e-Hind and a leading Shia scholar, slammed the BJP for pushing the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024. He accused the party of trying to regain lost political ground using the waqf issue. He also called Muslims supporting the bill “hired ponies and traitors.”
Speaking at a press conference at Dargah Shah-e-Mardan, Jorbagh, he highlighted waqf’s religious importance and warned against the BJP’s “deceitful” agenda. He criticized the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for drafting the bill without consulting real stakeholders and instead involving state-run bodies like railways that seek to grab waqf lands.
Jawad called the JPC’s functioning fraudulent, alleging it ignored objections, blocked emails, and denied acknowledgments of written concerns. He questioned why irrelevant RSS-linked groups like Vanvasi Ashram were invited while real stakeholders were sidelined. His representative submitted objections to the Lok Sabha Secretariat, but the JPC refused to acknowledge them.
He revealed that JPC officials claimed they were receiving over 50,000 objections daily, but there were no visible lines of people submitting documents. Calling the JPC’s actions a “sham and farce,” he said police were called to the Parliament Annexe to address the issue, but JPC officials still refused to acknowledge objections.
He called the JPC process a deception from the start. Addressing waqf board corruption, he blamed the Minority Ministry for poor oversight and demanded Minister Kiren Rijiju’s resignation. He accused Lucknow’s District Magistrate of mismanaging Hussainabad Trust waqfs and grabbing properties.
Under the new bill, any property declared waqf before or after the amendment would no longer be waqf unless decided by the Collector. Until resolved, it would remain government property. Criticizing the Minority Minister’s claim of distributing waqf proceeds to the poor, he asked why the government didn’t use gold from five lakh temples for the same purpose.
He dismissed BJP’s belief that the waqf issue would win back Hindu support, saying it would only appeal to hardcore elements, not justice-loving citizens. Responding to Muslim Manch and Naqvi’s support for the bill, he called them “hired ponies and traitors,” saying every community has such opportunists.
“I once supported BJP, Modi, Amit Shah, and Yogi, but after this bill, I left them. We are not BJP’s slaves,” he declared. He accused the government of targeting Muslim properties while sparing others.
Supporting the All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s call, he announced a nationwide campaign and protests against the bill. These gatherings will inform people about its impact and unite communities in opposition.
