Asaduddin Owaisi slams Modi govt at AIMPLB protest: ‘Waqf Bill aims to snatch Muslim graveyards, dargahs’

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi claimed on Monday that the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is intended to snatch away graveyards, khanqahs, dargahs from Muslims. The Hyderabad MP joined the All India Muslim Personal Law Board's (AIMPLB) protest against the Bill in New Delhi.

“Our job is to protest because it is unconstitutional. This Bill is not for saving Waqf property, not for removing encroachers but for ending Waqf property, for snatching away graveyards, khanqahs, dargahs from Muslims,” Owaisi said during the protest at the national capital's iconic Jantar Mantar.

Khanqahs and dargahs are tombs or shrines of revered Muslim saints.

The AIMPLB, the apex body of Muslim clerics in India, organised the protest against the Waqf Bill, terming the proposed legislation a “direct attack” on Muslims and would pave the way for the "usurping" of Waqf properties.

Apart from Owaisi, politicians from the Congress party, including former Union Minister Salman Khurshid and Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi, attended the protest, as did representatives from the board, leaders of major Muslim religious and social organisations, civil society activists and prominent Dalit, Adivasi, and OBC leaders.

If Chandrababu Naidu supports…

The AIMIM chief also emphasised that if Chandrababu Naidu (TDP), Chirag Paswan (LDP) and Nitish Kumar (JDU) – the three National Democratic Alliance  (NDA) partners – supported the act, people would remember them.

“We are saying that we will protest, if Chandrababu Naidu, Chirag Paswan, Nitish Kumar support it then the public will remember them for life,” Owaisi told reporters.

The Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the proposed amendments to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill after incorporating changes recommended by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). The approval paves the way for the bill to be tabled in Parliament in the second half of the budget session that began on March 10.

Owaisi was also a member of the JPC. The Union Cabinet, it is learnt, has incorporated most of the changes recommended JPC headed by BJP leader Jagdambika Pal. The panel cleared the bill on January 27, adopting all 14 changes proposed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-led NDA members.

The bill amounts to "discrimination" as it calls for having non-Muslim members in Waqf boards and councils when no such provision is there in the management of the endowments of Hindus and Sikhs, said Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, AIMPLB spokesperson.