"Using Parliament Majority To Take Away Muslims' Rights": Asaduddin Owaisi To NDTV On Waqf Bill

AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill which was passed by the Rajya Sabha last night.

One of the main contentions of Mr Owaisi was the inclusion of non-Muslim members in Waqf councils and state boards.

In an interview to NDTV, the chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) also said the BJP government is using their majority in parliament not to reform, but to destroy and take away the rights of Muslims.

"... If you see the central Waqf council, out of the 22 members, 11 can be and will be non-Muslims; 10 have to be Muslims. That is what the bill says. You come to the state Waqf board formation - out of 11, compulsory four have to be Muslims. The remaining can and will be non-Muslims," Mr Owaisi said.

"So basically, you will be managing the affairs of the Waqf Board, which is not possible in the Hindu Endowment Board, the Jain Endowment Board, or the Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. That in itself is a grave violation of the Constitution... Unfortunately, the Home Minister was misleading deliberately," he said.

To a question on whether his politics could be seen as regressive if he opposes what has been seen as an important reform measure, Mr Owaisi said, "You are using your majority in parliament not to reform, but to destroy, to take away all the rights Muslims have; you are by enacting a law waging a war on Muslims."

On the contentious Section 40 and allegations over mismanagement of Waqf lands, the AIMIM chief told NDTV, "I have been a member of the joint working committee and I can share with you right now that when I had asked this particular question along with other members about this so-called misuse of Section 40, you know the reply we got was that in the last 30 years, Section 40 was used only 518 times."

"Out of that, only eight people have gone to court. Now that same Section 40 provision exists in the Tamil Nadu Endowment Board, in Telangana and Andhra Endowment Boards... In one case, the Supreme Court accepted that with the use of Section 40, a property was saved... You can go to the Waqf Tribunal, you can go to the courts, who's stopping you from doing that? But that does not mean you take away, remove Section 40. You might be having a genuine grievance, but to get a particular section omitted, that is completely wrong," Mr Owaisi told NDTV.

A major part of his speech in parliament was on 'Waqf by user', which limited the Waqf Tribunal's ability to recognise properties based on historical usage. To a related question on how will a timestamp on a property based on its usage for several decades address a conflict like this, Mr Owaisi said 'Waqf by user' was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya Ram temple judgment.

"It is illegal for a government to completely overturn a Supreme Court judgment... If as a Waqf Board, I cannot use 'Waqf by use' against the government, where will I use it? The same provision exists in the Hindu Endowment Board... You are denying everything to me, then how can I protect my property? You have created a mechanism in which the definition of 'Waqf by user' has been completely modified," Mr Owaisi said.

He said "a more fruitful legislation would have come" had the debate been for another four-five months.

"In a week, we're sitting for four days, three to four hours every day. I must give credit to all the members (MPs), irrespective of which party we belong to. But you [ruling alliance MPs] were pushing us... The government was not ready, unfortunately, to listen to our viewpoint, to accept all these issues. They just wanted to bulldoze and have their say. Now they have created an unconstitutional legislation, which will be challenged and which will be rejected by the right-thinking people of this country," the AIMIM chief said.

The other leader who filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the proposed law is Congress MP Mohammad Jawed, who called the Waqf Bill a "blatant violation of the fundamental rights of Muslims".