BJP to ‘expose’ fin anomalies of waqf mgmt boards

Lucknow: Alleged financial anomalies in maintenance of waqf properties by dedicated boards over a period of time will figure on top of the agenda of BJP's upcoming nationwide campaign to make minorities, essentially Muslims, aware about the various provisions of the newly enacted Waqf (amendment) Act, 2025.
The campaign, scheduled to be launched from Apr 20, will see BJP's main organisational brass coordinating with the party minority morcha in "exposing" the "surreptitious acts" of the 32 waqf management boards in the 23 states, a BJP functionary told TOI.
Sources said that the party brass plans to highlight how the number of waqf properties, which constituted a land bank worth Rs. 1.2 lakh crore yielded an average annual income around Rs 150 crore in 2019-20 though they could have potentially generated a return of Rs 12,000 crore. Various reports show that the earnings from waqf have registered a steep decline over the years.
The Union minority affairs ministry data show that there are 8.75 lakh waqf properties straddling over 37.39 lakh acre.
The campaign will be led nationally by a committee headed by BJP national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agarwal as convener and party national minority morcha chief Jamal Siddiqui as co-convener. In the case of UP, this will be overseen by a committee comprising state BJP vice-president Triyanbak Tripathi, state minority morcha president Basit Ali and state secretary Shiv Bhushan Singh. The committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on Apr 17 before hitting the ground on Apr 20.
The party has also decided to form similar committees at the district and mandal level to mobilise the masses at the ground level. The party has asked its MPs and MLAs to become part of the campaign.
When contacted, Basit Ali said that the committees will reach out to the influential sections of the society to scale up the impact of the campaign. Stressing that the rumours around the Waqf Act needs to be dispelled, Ali said that the income generated from the waqf properties would be used for the welfare of the minorities, which included construction of educational institutions and hospitals.
He said that BJP workers will especially visit Muslim dominated localities and guarantee that no mosque built on waqf land would be demolished. "People need to be made aware about the opposition's malicious agenda to misguide the poor Muslims," he said.
The development comes close on the heels of the opposition parties moving the Supreme Court to challenge the Waqf Amendment Bill. In all, 10 petitions have been filed in the apex court contesting the newly enacted legislation. These petitions are expected to be heard by the court on Apr 15.