Religious Groups Campaign for and Against New Waqf Act

 Hyderabad: Hundreds of groups are using the Ganesh Chathurthi festivities to drum up support for the proposed Waqf (Amendment) Act, while others are using email campaigns to oppose the legislation.

Several mandals feature a QR code campaign asking the visitors to support the proposed law. Boards highlighting the QR code have been placed by an organisation named Ram Sewa Sangh. On scanning the QR code, the visitor is taken to a mail link with a pre-formatted letter addressed to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Act from their personal mailbox.

The organisers of several mandaps have also displayed step-by-step instructions for the visitors to send emails to the JPC. Activists have also been circulating the QR code in social media groups. To ensure that this is done, groups have been misleading members by wrongly stating that Saturday was the last day for submission of suggestions.

The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, was introduced in the Lok Sabha and has been referred to the JPC for examination. Considering the wider implications of the proposed Bill, the committee under the chairmanship of Jagdambika Pal has decided to invite memoranda containing views, suggestions from the public, NGOs, experts and stakeholders.

A professional organisation, which regularly conducts `talk shows’ on different topics, is also actively engaged in mobilising support from different sections by arranging lectures by experts on how the Waqf Act deprived the land rights of thousands of poor people in the state. Incidentally, Telangana is the second state after Uttar Pradesh with the maximum number of Waqf land parcels.

Several Muslim groups have been opposing the amendments to the Act. The Social Democratic Party of India, Muslim United Forum, All India Milli Council of Telangana and other groups have been running active email campaigns against the amendments.

Claiming that the amendments will deprive Muslims of fundamental rights and genuine land rights, the Muslim groups have started an awareness campaign to mop up support for their efforts.

Meanwhile BJP vice-president and MP D.K. Aruna, who is on the JPC, said that she was getting hundreds of representations from public in several colonies located in the state about land disputes with the Waqf Board. She said she would take the matter to the notice of JPC, which is expected to tour the state at the end of the month.

She along with Malkajgiri MP Etala Rajendar and others visited RNS Colony in Boduppal and collected opinions from residents who said that the Waqf Board had claimed their land though they were staying in the area for over two decades and had all supporting documents. About 800 families stay on a 300-acre parcel of land in Boduppal.

She said poor Muslims are the major victims of age-old Waqf law and added that the amendments were not against any particular community.