Members of Muslim community, under various organisations, led by the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) in West Bengal staged their protest against the Centre’s Waqf Amendment Bill demanding active participation of TMC MPs against it during the voting process.

The protestors pointed out that the Waqf Board is not the only endowment Board with a status of Special Act; rather all the religious Endowment Boards in our country have similar provisions. “If other religious endowment boards are continuing with its autonomous status and controlled by only members belonging to the same religion and Waqf Board’s powers are scrapped then it will be a clear violation of Article 14 of the Constitution,” said a protestor during the sit-in protest at Y-channel today. “Several other Articles belonging to Fundamentals Rights are under threat because of this unconstitutional Amendment of the Waqf Act,” he added.

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According to the representatives of the AIMPLB, despite sending five crore emails to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), presenting valuable arguments from AIMPLB and other major central and state-level Muslim organizations, and submitting detailed written documents on each clause of the amendment bill, the government has not softened its stance; rather, it has made the bill even more stringent and controversial.

Given the background, the AIMPLB, along with all religious and community organisations, is to hold protests across the country and today’s sit-in demonstration was a part of it.

The protestors also submitted a deputation to the governor highlighting that the bill was a ‘direct attack on the mosques, madrasahs, graveyards and other waqf institutions. “As the head of the state, we request you to communicate, persuade and appeal to the central government to withdraw the bill,” read the deputation.

The protesting members also underscored that the state government has already passed a resolution against this bill in the West Bengal Assembly. The members are now demanding that the ruling party MPs should protest against it and actively participate in the voting process. “TMC should issue a three-line whip to ensure that all its MPs remain present in Parliament during the vote and cast their votes against the bill,” said a member.