20 hours Ago By Subodh Ghildiyal
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday said that govt wants to taint a community that fought for independence and supported Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India call when BJP and its forebears were writing mercy petitions to the British and boycotting the movement, as he dubbed the Waqf Amendment Bill a "4-D attack" to dilute the Constitution, defame and disenfranchise minorities, and divide the Indian society. Mixing objections to the specifics of the bill with political barbs to contextualise the legislation in what the opposition called BJP's larger politics of polarisation, Gogoi, who opened the debate for the opposition in Lok Sabha , set the tone by saying that the amendments will serve no purpose as minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju 's claims about the drawbacks of the parent Act are misleading but the bill will manage to sow religious disputes across the country. With the two-pronged attack line, Gogoi slammed the insertion of anti-terror law UAPA in one of the provisions, and asked govt if the UAPA was only for waqf or it would be brought for other religious, charitable Acts and state boards.
Gogoi raised concern over Clause 3 that defines Muslims as individuals practising Islam for five years. "Minorities are now being forced to prove their religious identity with certificates from govt. Tomorrow, will people from other faiths also have to do this?" he questioned .
"What message you want to send out? Which community you want to taint? The community which fought for freedom, made sacrifices in 1857, whose two lakh ulemas gave their lives, that rebuffed Jinnah...
when you people were boycotting Quit India movement, that community supported us. When you wrote mercy petitions to the British, they made sacrifices..
. Freedom movement in which you did not participate," he said, the "you" reference made for the governing BJP and its forebears. Congress MP KC Venugopal mocked BJP for touting the support of Catholics Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) for the waqf bill, saying VHP was formed to oppose the Papal visit, and there have been 753 attacks on churches during the Modi govt.
He said CBCI issued statements for action against attacks but was not heard. "This bill is to divide our Bharat Mata in the name of religion," he said. Venugopal said Vaishno Devi Temple Act states only a Hindu can be the board's chairman and member, while only Hindu MLAs of Kerala can vote for Devaswom board of temples.
He said the provisions are justified and the same should be followed for waqf too, slamming the provision for non-Muslims in the Waqf Board..
