Some time back, I was attending a meeting of the Communist Party of India in my home state, a slogan was raised in my language “matha dhana kotha kara” which means all the properties of Hindu monasteries should be either nationalized or distributed among people. To further clarify the leaders spoke “there is a lot of corruption and mismanagement in the properties of Hindu temples and monasteries and hence the should be given away to public or Govt.”

I immediately reacted to this. I said that “Yes, no one denies the corruption and loot by especially the dynastic servitors of Hindu temples and monasteries, but the same is the case with Wakf properties. And forget the Christian Missionaries, no one knows where from  money comes and where the money goes.

There was pin drop silence for some time.

Then I resumed saying that India is a secular country. Our Constitution mandates equal treatment of all religions.

Then when I asked “Is Communist Party a secular party or a communal party?”, No one dared to say that Communist Party is a secular party.

I then asked a very harsh question “Is the party not murmuring against the corruption in Wakf properties because is it getting a share in the loot”?

I was asked to leave the place immediately, which I did.

Coming back to our original topic regarding the corruption in Wakf boards, the corruption is massive.

What is a wakf property?

“Wakf property” is one which is surrendered to Allah. Any Muslim can Wakf his/her property whether movable or immovable, after which the Allah is the owner of the property. The property cannot be sold, but it can be leased and used for earning money and any income from the property should be utilized in the service of the Muslims.

Central Waqf Council, India is an Indian statutory body established in 1964 by the Government of India under the Waqf Act, 1954 (now a subsection of the Waqf Act, 1995) for the purpose of advising it on matters pertaining to the working of the State Waqf Boards and proper administration of the Waqfs in the country.

The State Waqf Boards are established by the State Governments in view of the provisions of Section 9(1) the Waqf Act, 1954. These work towards management, regulation and protect the Waqf properties by constituting District Waqf Committees, Mandal Waqf Committees and Committees for the individual Waqf Institutions. The Waqf Boards shall be body corporate having perpetual succession and common seal with power to acquire and hold property.

The Waqf endowments in terms of land in India are unimaginably huge — to the tune of around 4 lakh registered properties and around 6 lakh acres of land. According to a joint parliamentary committee headed by Rajya Sabha chairman K Rehman Khan, the third largest ownership of land after the Indian Railways and the defense department is that of the Waqf.

Khan’s report records that almost 70 per cent of Waqf property has been encroached upon and of the remaining, cases of blatant corruption abound. Land is disposed off to builders, markets, hotels, malls or industries at unimaginably shockingly low rents. Almost 77 per cent of Delhi was owned by the Waqf but most of its properties have been illegally occupied.

Ironically, the list of encroachers, illegal occupiers and perpetrators of misappropriation of Waqf properties include the names of personalities as prominent as Ahmad Bukhari, the Imam of Jama Masjid of Delhi, Maulana Muazzam Ahmed, the Naib-Imam of the Shahi Masjid, Fatehpuri, Delhi

There is a nexus between politicians, police, bureaucrats and land mafia who have always eyed Waqf land which cannot be sold or its use changed till eternity. They are given on lease in lieu of money that fills the coffers of officials.

The Karnataka Wakf Board Land Scam is the alleged misappropriation of ₹2,000 billion (US$27 billion) in Indian property funds, made public by a report submitted by the Karnataka State Minorities Commission in 2012.

Some time back, UP minority affairs minister(Mohsin Raza) alleged about massive irregularities in waqf boards during the Samajwadi Party rule.

Same is the scenario is Bengal.

it is an irony that Many people speak about the loot done by the dynastic corrupt servitors in Hindu temples, but no one speaks about this loot in particular.

This is another reason to believe that Indian secularism is in reality Islamic fundamentalism.  The so called secular parties are indeed Islamic Jihadi parties, not serving the interests of common Muslims but the corrupt elements of the society.

 

 

 

 

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