With Waqf Bill, RSS-BJP reaffirmed anti-Muslim intent: Srinagar MP

As Rajya Sabha passed the Waqf amendment bill on Friday, Srinagar MP and senior National Conference leader Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said the RSS-BJP regime has strongly reaffirmed its “anti-Muslim, anti-minority intent.”

“Today, India has moved into a dark era of brute majoritarianism, where minority interests have been shown the door. With the passing of Waqf Bill, the RSS-BJP regime has strongly reaffirmed its anti-Muslim, anti-minority intent. A party that does not have a single Muslim MP has no moral or political right to speak for Muslims,” Mehdi said in a statement.

He said in the “temple of democracy”, the “lived realities of Muslims were ignored and humiliated”.

The Srinagar MP claimed that he was not allowed to speak on the bill in the Parliament. “As a Muslim voice from Kashmir in Parliament, I was not even allowed to speak. Time was taken at both the introduction and passage of the bill by the floor leader of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, leaving no space for my intervention. This is structural marginalisation. And it has caused deep anguish among the people I represent,” he said.

Mehdi said taking away Waqf autonomy, abolishing “Waqf by user”, and allowing land grabbers to claim Muslim properties is nothing but “state-sponsored dispossession”.

“My fight against this belligerent and bigoted attack on Muslims will continue to grow stronger,” he added.

Meanwhile, People’s Conference president and Handwara MLA Sajad Lone came down heavily on the National Conference on not taking a firm stand against the Waqf Bill in the Parliament. “We will support unconditionally any bill brought in the J&K assembly pertaining to Waqf. If NC has any such intentions we will support it. But can they answer one simple question? Why on earth was their delivery in Parliament so lacklustre and so apologetically servile. J&K is the only Muslim majority province in India. The parliamentarians from J&K should have roared like a lion not meowed like a cat,” he stated.