Kerala Catholic Bishops Council supports Waqf Amendment bill

India Today

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) has urged Kerala MPs to vote in favor of amending the Waqf Amendment bill, citing unconstitutional and unjust provisions in the earlier pact.

Transcript

00:00A big news coming in from Kerala amid the anti-Waqf Amendment will protest

00:05there's been support to government of the center from the Kerala Catholic

00:09Bishops Council. They've urged the Kerala MPs to vote in favor to amend the

00:14unconstitutional unjust provisions of the earlier Waqf Act which is being

00:19amended right now. So what they believe has been unconstitutional unjust

00:23provision. Remember this comes in the backdrop of while there are Muslim

00:27groups that have been protesting against any change there have been

00:31serious complaints as well of land grab charges of usurping land in the name of

00:36Waqf claiming it's their property while many farmers especially in the states

00:40like of Kerala Karnataka have been left in the nudge. I want to immediately bring

00:45in my colleague Shibimol KG for the latest on that. Shibimol I believe

00:50that Kiran Rajiju has welcomed the request by the Catholic Bishops Council

00:55to all the MPs. Tell me more about what exactly has been said and why.

01:01Well Pooja the Kerala Catholic Bishop Council the KCBC is one of the prominent

01:06organizations in the state as far as Christian religion is concerned. What

01:10they've said is that it's in the background of the Munambam land issue

01:13Munambam Waqf issue. In fact 610 families around 610 families have been

01:18protesting there since the last six months saying that their land is being

01:22taken away by the Waqf Board. The issue is that this land earlier owned by

01:27somebody named Siddiq said had sold it to a college named Farooq College in

01:30Kozhikode. Later many years the college had sold this property to the you know

01:35to the residents there around 610 families who are living there but later

01:39the Waqf Board had claimed that this land is Waqf because Siddiq said the

01:43owner of the land had given it as a gift to the

01:48Farooq College. So this cannot be bought by you guys and you cannot stay here is

01:54what the Waqf Board had said and their revenue rights were removed. Later the

01:57state government had interfered and you know given them those rights the revenue

02:03rights but the protest has been ongoing because they do not have a clarity over

02:06whether they can continue to live on their land which they bought for money

02:10they have all the legal documents so that's when the Kerala Catholic Bishop

02:14Council had urged the Kerala MPs saying that you know please vote in favor of

02:18this bill these constitutional parts of the Waqf Act should be amended which

02:23will give relief to the people who have been protesting there since the last

02:26six months. We're hearing the Congress has not officially reacted but one of

02:30the MPs have said that you know we will consider the stance of KCBC we look into

02:35it but IUML the major ally of the Congress has said that we will not support it.

02:38Can this kind of a support make difference to the government of the centre? Well remember

02:43negotiations and process has been on but there have been protests as well from

02:47some of the Muslim groups but there are for example this Bishop Council that

02:50believes unjust provisions need to go.

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