BENGALURU, 9 APRIL

Former Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, K Rahman Khan, an authority on Waqf matters, led two Joint Parliamentary Committees in 1999 and 2008 to look into the functioning of Waqf boards. In a chat with Salar News, Khan says, ‘The NDA government succeeded in enacting the new Waqf Act, but they cannot take away the people's right to protest against it.’

Are bigger protests than the Shaheen Bagh agitation —when women staged a dharna from December 2019 to March 2020— after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the offing?

The mood in the Muslim community is to protest. I feel it will be bigger than the Shaheen Bagh protest because the issue now is the community's survival. Sometimes, agitations have yielded results. It might have become an Act now, but the Centre cannot take away the people's right to protest. I only hope the judiciary will understand our concerns and deliver justice.

Why did the BJP rake up the Waqf issue?

The approach of the BJP government is to create conflict between Hindus and Muslims. Creating conflicts is a good subject for the BJP, and by doing so, they can divert people's attention from development activities, where we are behind. For 13 years, there was no talk about the Waqf, nor was it discussed in the media. Why all of a sudden now? After the Waqf issue, they will find another subject to engage people in controversies.

BJP's argument to repeal earlier Acts was that they lacked transparency in Waqf property management. Do you agree?

I don't agree. What is new in the Act now that wasn't there in the earlier laws? I agree that the Waqf boards have been mismanaged, but mismanagement is not confined to Waqf boards—many other institutions in the country are in shambles. Giving that as the reason, one cannot change the entire law. It's an open truth that Muslims have not managed the Waqf boards, and some people in the community have grabbed lands belonging to the Waqf. The new Act takes away the character of lands donated as Waqf. One such example is that after 12 years, a person who has encroached upon Waqf land can automatically become the owner, and in the event of a dispute, the government can step in and declare it as its own.

Are you disappointed by the stance of so-called secular parties, who supported the Act?

There was some regard for the so-called secular parties, though they were allies of the NDA government. When we saw their justification for supporting the Bill's passage, they don't deserve any respect now.