New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that the Waqf (Amendment) Act is an attempt by the Modi government to further its Hindutva ideology by trying to erase Muslims’ identity.
In an exclusive interview with ThePrint, the Lok Sabha MP further said that it is not a law but a “device to take away Muslim religious places to deny us our constitutional rights”.
“That is why you see every Muslim organisation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari rejecting this amendment,” Owaisi added.
The passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Act by Parliament earlier this month was followed by violent protests in various parts of the country including West Bengal, Manipur and Tripura. The matter has also reached the Supreme Court which is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the law.
The AIMIM chief condemned the violence but said the protests are necessary. “If you’re pushing someone to the wall and then on the basis of your majority in Parliament you make a law to only discriminate against the biggest minority of this country, then yes, people will definitely come out and protest,” he said.
The violence in Murshidabad—in which three people lost their lives—was “unfortunate and condemnable”, Owaisi further said, adding that “if there’s violence, you are helping the BJP government”.
Protests should happen, but they should be peaceful, he reiterated. “This law is only targeting and discriminating against Muslims so we definitely have to protest. We have to go to the Supreme Court.”
The Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad further said that the Waqf Act only discriminates against one religion and is unconstitutional.
He also hit out at the Waqf Act clause under which only a person practicing Islam for at least five years will be permitted to declare any movable or immovable property as waqf. “Who is the government to decide whether I’m practicing or not? Is that same provision there for the Hindu community or for Buddhists or Sikhs? It is not there.”
“Moreover, under Article 300A (of the Constitution) it is anyone’s right to give or not give their property…after the Puttaswamy judgement, privacy has become a fundamental right, so who will decide whether I’m practicing or not?” he asked.
Commenting on the provision, which mandates that only those who have been “practising Islam for five years” can give their property for charitable use, Owaisi said: “Let us take the example of a woman. How would you even check whether a woman is practicing Islam or not?”
“What happens if someone comes and beats me and forces me to raise a slogan of JSR (Jai Shri Ram), would I be a Muslim or not? Why have you brought this provision? It is only to deny my religious agency and my right? Is there such a provision for the Hindu community?” Owaisi further said, adding that the waqf law is part of the BJP’s ideology to ensure that only one particular ideology is prevalent.
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‘You have demeaned us’
Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that Muslim youths would not have to spend their lives fixing punctured tyres had waqf properties been used for the community’s welfare, Owaisi asked what the Modi government had done for the welfare of the community over the past several years.
“And this puncture wallah barb used against the Muslim community. What have you done in the last 11 years? How did Pehlu Khan, (Mohammad) Akhlaq die? How did that young boy get murdered on a train? All these mob lynchings which have happened in BJP-ruled states, all these bulldozers that have been used…why did you go and demolish that small hut of a Muslim puncture wala just because some allegation was made that slogans were raised in some India-Pakistan match?” he asked, apparently referring to the February incident of a scrap shop being razed in Maharashtra after the owner’s son allegedly raised pro-Pakistan slogans during an India-Pakistan Champions Trophy match.
“Why have you stopped giving scholarships to Muslims, the minorities? In fact, you have decreased the numbers of pre-matric scholarship when the whole world knows empirical studies say that Muslims have the highest dropout rate at the lower primary school level,” he claimed.
Owaisi further said that BJP does not have a single Muslim MP in Parliament. “You could have made one puncture wallah an MP. You could have given him a ticket and said ‘ye Abdul hai isko MP banao’.”
The AIMIM chief said the PM had demeaned the entire community. “You have demeaned us. Your language does not befit that of a prime minister. Right to dignity, the prime minister should know is fundamental right now and dignity belongs to every religion. Where is my dignity as a Muslim? You stood up and said identify these people with the clothes they wear. So the PM’s party has no love for the Muslim community. Yes, our PM has love for any Gulf country Sheikh he meets. He embraces them but when it comes to an Abdul or a Salim of our country the prime minister just treats them as some sort of alien.”
“That is because unfortunately he follows his own ideology, not Indian nationalism,” he added.
Further criticising the waqf law, Owaisi said that once it is implemented, Muslims will start losing their waqf properties.
“It will play out in such a way that there will be more issues of masjids not being masjids, there will be people from the RSS claiming that ‘oh this was not a masjid 200 years ago or 400 years ago this was this and that’. If this law prevails then Muslims will not be allowed to pray in masjids which are under ASI. They can close it in the garb of the monument getting damaged or they can say you can pray after sunrise and before sunset that is two times a day or they can say you can pray only once on Friday,” he added.
Owaisi also alleged that consultations with the “real stakeholders” were not conducted. “Have you done any meetings with the community? Have you spoken to the real stakeholders and you talk about stakeholders? In our JWC (Joint Working Committee?), one organisation was called whose four members were convicted for terrorism. That organisation was called to give gyaan on the waqf board,” he claimed.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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