NEW DELHI, Apr 14: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said letters from hundreds of Muslim widows led the Centre to amend the Waqf act to take up the task of reforming the management of Waqf properties.
He said had Waqf assets been managed well, Muslim youths “wouldn’t have been fixing punctures of bicycle tyres” to eke out a living. Mr Modi’s statement strongly criticising protests against the amended Waqf act came at a rally in Hisar in Haryana even as violence continued in some parts of West Bengal leading to the deployment of central forces.
Addressing a rally in Hisar, Mr Modi said Waqf properties had been misused for decades, benefiting land mafia, instead of poor Muslims. “It was only after hundreds of widowed Muslim women wrote to the Government of India that the issue was even discussed, and eventually, the law was changed,” said PM Modi.
“Now, the exploitation of the poor is finally going to stop. Had that money been used honestly from the beginning, my young Muslim youth wouldn’t have had to spend their lives repairing bicycle punctures,” he added. PM Modi’s remarks indicate that the complaints of misuse of land being claimed as Waqf property were not only from non-Muslims but also from poor Muslims.
“According to the new Waqf law, land or property owned by any Adivasi cannot be appropriated by the Waqf Board. Poor and Pasmanda Muslims will benefit,” he added. These remarks came as PM Modi marked Ambedkar Jayanti by laying the foundation of the Maharaja Agrasen Airport in Hisar, Haryana, and inaugurating the first flight to Ayodhya.
Mr Modi also attacked Congress leaders, calling them “vote bank hungry politicians.” He questioned why Congress had never appointed a Muslim as its party chief. “If you truly have even a little sympathy for Muslims in your heart, then why doesn’t the Congress party make a Muslim the party president? Why don’t they do it?” he asked.
The Congress quickly retorted to Mr Modi’s poser questioning in turn when would the RSS, the BJP’s ideological mentor, would appoint a dalit, Muslim or a woman as its chief.
Mr Modi even called Congress a destroyer of the Constitution. “The Congress has become the destroyer of the Constitution. Dr BR Ambedkar wanted to bring in equality, but the Congress spread the virus of vote-bank politics. Babasaheb wanted every poor, every backward person to be able to live with dignity, to hold their head high, to have dreams, and to fulfil them,” said PM Modi.
Even as the BJP tried to woo women as a separate voter base, it brought in a law banning the practice of instant triple talaq in 2019. That was seen as an attempt to woo the votes of Muslim women voters. “The BJP government has ended the evil practice of [instant] triple talaq. We have enacted a strong law in the interest of crores of Muslim sisters and protected their families,” Mr Modi said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
