Waqf Law Amendments Benefited Land Mafia, Not Muslims: PM Modi

Speaking at the opening of the Hisar airport in Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress Party harshly for opposing the Waqf (Amendment) Act. He charged that the Congress was exploiting the Waqf law for political ends and caving in to Muslim fundamentalists. If the Congress genuinely cared about the community, Modi asked why it had not named a Muslim party president or given Muslim candidates 50% of its Lok Sabha election tickets.

Speaking on the anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's birth, Modi claimed that his government is motivated by the Dalit leader's fight and that all decisions are made with his values in mind. Using the Emergency as an example, he asserted that the Congress only used the Constitution as a means of maintaining its hold on power. "A secular civil code is mentioned in the Constitution, but Congress never put it into effect. The Congress is now against the Uniform Civil Code, which is being implemented in Uttarakhand," he said.

Modi also chastised the Congress for failing to guarantee Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes the advantages of reservations. He claimed that the party had repeatedly degraded Ambedkar while he was alive and attempted to obliterate his legacy after his passing. According to the Prime Minister, Ambedkar had opposed religiously based reservations. Muslims were also harmed by Congress's appeasement tactics. The majority of the community was left impoverished by their policies, which only benefited a small number of fundamentalists, according to Modi. He claimed that the Congress had manipulated the Waqf law for vote-bank politics, citing it as proof.

"Land mafias took over properties meant for Dalits, the backward classes, and widows," he said, highlighting the enormous amounts of land held by Waqf Boards and claiming that impoverished Muslim youth would not have had to make do with low-paying jobs if these resources had been used honestly.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress, responded by accusing the BJP government of not adhering to Ambedkar's vision. He remarked, "They talk big but ignore Babasaheb's core principles, especially the focus on education." Kharge restated Congress's call for the Women's Reservation Act, which includes provisions for SC, ST, and OBC women to be implemented immediately.