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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.