1 day Ago By TOI News Desk
NEW DELHI: With elections in Tamil Nadu scheduled early next year, DMK president and chief minister M K Stalin has taken the lead to emerge as one of the strongest critics of the Waqf Amendment Bill - which is all set to get Parliament nod. On Thursday, Stalin came to the assembly wearing a black badge to protest against the passing of the Bill in Lok Sabha. The chief minister also announced that his government will challenge the Bill in Supreme Court.
"This is an act that disturbs religious harmony. To highlight this, we are participating in today's assembly proceedings wearing black badges," the chief minister told the House. "I would like to inform you that the Supreme Court will be approached on behalf of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) against this controversial amendment.
Tamil Nadu will fight against the Union government's law which destroys the autonomy of the Waqf Board and threatens the minority Muslim population," Stalin said amidst thumping of desks by the Treasury. His party member in Rajya Sabha Tiruchi Siva made a strong case against the Bill and claimed that the BJP-led NDA government was targeting the Muslims. "Why is a certain community being targeted? Govt intention is malafide and deplorable.
The government says 'sabka saath, sabka vishwaas', but they have a different policy for Muslims - exclusion and marginalistaion. It is a sad day as Constitution has given rights to the Muslims, but they have been deprived of their rights. We should remember that Muslims also have contributed to the development of the country," T Siva said in his speech in the Upper House.
Siva in his speech highlighted how the BJP governments in states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were targeting the Muslims. Earlier on Wednesday, when the Bill was being debated in Lok Sabha, Stalin shot off a letter to Prime Minister Modi against the legislation. "The Constitution of India grants every citizen the right to follow their respective religion and it is the duty of the elected governments to uphold and protect this right.
However, the proposed amendments to the Waqf Act, 1995 have not taken into consideration the constitutional protection given to minorities and are bound to severely harm the interest of Muslim community," Stalin wrote in his letter. Last week, Stalin had got a resolution passed against the Bill in the state assembly on March 27. The resolution stated that the proposed Waqf legislation would seriously affect the religious harmony of India besides the minority Muslim community.
Clearly, all his moves appear to be part of a well-planned political strategy to steal the initiative over his rivals in the state with assembly elections scheduled early next year. Interestingly, on all these initiatives the AIADMK , which is DMK's arch rival, has been forced to support the government. In fact, actor-politician Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam chief Vijay, who may be the surprise factor in the upcoming assembly elections, has also dubbed the Waqf bill "anti-democratic" and demanded that it be taken back.
Accusing the BJP of pursuing "majoritarian and divisive politics", he wondered whether the bill was not a "psychological attack" on Muslims and rejected the BJP-led Centre's arguments in support of the bill. "The TVK urges that the anti-democratic bill be immediately taken back heeding the voice of all democratic forces. In case the union government led by the BJP does not do this, the TVK will join forces with Muslim brothers and take part in their Waqf rights legal struggle," Vijay said.
Stalin has been quick to latch on to some of the issues raised by the BJP in the state. When Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked the DMK government in Tamil Nadu to implement the three-language policy, Stalin turned it into an issue of state's rights alleging that it was not the National Education Policy that the BJP was trying to implement but a "saffron policy" aimed at developing Hindi and not the nation. Raising fears of "Hindi imposition" on the state, Stalin claimed that Tamil Nadu was ready for another language war.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister did not stop at that. He simultaneously raised the pitch on the "threat" of Tamil Nadu losing Lok Sabha seats under the proposed delimitation and called an all-party meeting on the issue to ensure that the state was not penalised for ensuring development and controlling population. Muslims constitute nearly 6% of the state's population and have equally supported the DMK and the AIADMK in their pockets of influence.
However, this time around Stalin perhaps wants to consolidate their support for his party. Also, perhaps there is a concerted effort by CM Stalin to make DMK a main stream player in national politics and lead opposition unity against the BJP. That was evident when Stalin brought opposition CMs and leaders from non-NDA parties in the joint action committee against the delimitation.
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