West Bengal’s Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee said the WAQF amendment Act would not “apply” in the state, and that it will live in 25 million Muslims.
Indian authorities have deployed troops to crack down on deadly protests in eastern West Bengal over a recently passed controversial bill that critics say dilute Muslim rights to administer a religious fund worth more than $14 billion (WAQF).
Protests against the federal WAQF amendment bill in the Maasidabad area of the majority of Muslims in West Bengal escalated on Friday and Saturday, resulting in more than 150 deaths and more than 150 arrests, according to the newspaper The Times of India.
Daily said on Sunday that Calcutta High Court ordered the “immediate” deployment of paramilitary border guards (BSFs) into the area. Karnising, an inspector in the BSF’s South Bengal Frontier Division, said the units were sent to “support” local police rather than “independent action.”
The bill amended the 1995 law on the management of WAQF or Muslim property donated for religious or charitable purposes, but was passed earlier this month after intense debate in both chambers of both parliaments.
WAQF refers to personal property (movable or immobilized) that is perpetually donated by Muslims for religious or charitable purposes. However, the inclusion of non-Muslims in the management of WAQF properties has raised concerns among Muslims who say the federal government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) discriminates against them, as other religious groups are still permitted to administer faith-based institutions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP argues that the amendment aims to combat transparency in WAQF governance and corruption and mismanagement.
However, Muslims fear that a change in the law in 1995 could leave WAQF’s property, including historic mosques, shops, shrines, cemeteries and thousands of acres of land.
Opposition parties say it is an attack on the Indian Muslim minority, forming around 15% of India’s 1.4 billion people, and is guaranteed by the Indian secular constitution.
Rahul Gandhi, party leader of the opposition parliament, said the bill “is targeting Muslims today, but sets precedents to target other communities in the future.”
Religious polarization
Modi’s decade as prime minister saw him cultivate the image as an offensive champion of the country’s majority Hindu faith, showing that religious polarization helped his party benefit the election.
West Bengal’s Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday called for calm, saying her government would not implement the bill in the state. “This law doesn’t apply in our state. Why is there a riot?” she said in X’s post.
Banerjee, who heads the local Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, appealed to members who “do not engage in non-religious behavior in the name of religion” and pledged legal action against participants.
West Bengali opposition leader BJP Svendu Adikari claimed in X that over 400 Hindus had fled Maasidabad for “religious persecution,” causing a explosion of Banerjee’s government “full elements” and “allowing the collapse of law and order.”
TMC MP Saugata Roy told The Times of India that Banerjee had called for a meeting to soften the Muslim community. “People’s emotions are upset over the WAQF bill. The reaction was spontaneous,” he said.
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