– Md. Sami Ahmad
Patna: On Juma’tul-Wida (Last Friday of Ramadan), when on the call of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Muslims reached mosques wearing black badges, Nitish Kumar government came up with a full-page advertisement in all major Hindi newspapers highlighting the budget for Minority Welfare Department.
The advertisement is being seen as an attempt to portray Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as Muslim friendly, while Muslim organisations say he should realise that the issue is the safety of Waqf properties. They say the minority welfare department’s budget is not an issue at this moment.
They say the Waqf issue is a matter of life and death for the Muslim community. So, Nitish Kumar should stop playing gimmicks and announce that his party would oppose the Bill. They blame the Nitish Kumar-led party to have supported the Citizenship Bill, which is now an act (CAA).
The AIMPLB’s call to don black badges was followed by one of the most successful Dharnas in Patna that was staged against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. General Secretary of AIMPLB, Maulana Mohammed Fazlurrahim Mujaddidi and President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Syed Sadatullah Husaini had specially flown to Patna to attend this Dharna.
The Dharna was also attended by many prominent political leaders like RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, AIMIM MLA Akhtarul Iman, CPI-ML MLA Mahboob Alam, Azad Samaj Party MP Chandrashekhar Azad and Jan Suraj Party chief Prashant Kishor.
The Muslim organisations had given a clear-cut warning to Nitish Kumar and other secular leaders. They said that if they didn’t oppose the Bill, their secular credentials would become irrelevant for ever.
The JD(U) also felt the heat when eight major Muslim organisations gave a boycott call to Nitish Kumar’s Iftar party. Senior JD(U) leader and minister in Nitish Cabinet, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary tried to do a damage control, saying that they have conveyed the concerns of Muslims to the central government but did not commit to oppose the Bill.
The Muslim organisations are of the view that Nitish Kumar can still stall the Waqf Bill by asking his 12 MPs to oppose this Bill. Last year, when the Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha, Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh had supported the Bill, claiming that it was not against the Muslims.
Prominent Muslim leaders met Nitish Kumar and conveyed their complete rejection of the Bill, but they could not get any assurance from him. They tried to meet Kumar once again after the JPC submitted its report, trashing all the objections and suggestions of Muslim organisations but they were denied.
It is not clear if Nitish Kumar is himself taking decision in this regard as he is reportedly not in good health. Many suspect that Kumar is surrounded by those who are close to BJP policies and they are not allowing the Muslim leaders to meet him.
As far as budget is concerned, observers say that it is not only the Minority Welfare Department whose budget has been increased by manifolds but other departments also got their budgets. They say that the ratio of Minority Welfare Department budget is still minimal. Other claims like the promotion of Urdu are also challenged by the observers.
