Waqf Bill: In Double Whammy, Congress May Lose Muslim & Christian Support In Kerala, Courtesy BJP

Last Updated:April 03, 2025, 18:08 IST

Congress’s catch-22 situation in Kerala can largely be attributed to BJP’s quiet outreach to the Church in the state where Christians form 18.4 per cent of the state’s population

The Congress stands to lose the popular support of Muslim voters in Kerala where a vast section of the community is battling the Waqf Board in land or property disputes. (PTI)

The Waqf Amendment Bill, which was passed in Lok Sabha on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, has presented a Catch-22 situation for the Congress in Kerala. The BJP, which is still making inroads in Kerala politics, checkmated the Congress-led UDF, leaving them with little avenues for escape.

In its pursuit to be seen on the side of Muslims of India, the Congress, ironically, stands to lose the popular support of Muslim voters in Kerala where a vast section of the community is battling the Waqf Board in land or property disputes. On the other hand, another of Congress’s traditional vote banks that has recently been slowly slipping away in Kerala — the Christian community — too will be reasonably upset with the Grand Old Party after its Members of Parliament chose to disregard a KCBC appeal to vote in favour of the amendment.

THE QUIET CHURCH OUTREACH

Congress’s catch-22 situation in Kerala can largely be attributed to BJP’s quiet outreach to the Church in the state where Christians form 18.4 per cent of the state’s population. The BJP has been actively engaging with the Christian community in Kerala, particularly the influential Catholic Church, to garner support for the Bill. Former Union minister KJ Alphonse and the party’s first-ever MP from the state Suresh Gopi are learnt to have reached out “to remove any misunderstandings if one may have about the Bill”.

Sources privy to the matter say the focal point of this outreach was the Munambam land dispute in Ernakulam district. The Kerala State Waqf Board has claimed ownership of around 400 acres of land, affecting over 600 families, predominantly Christians and some Hindus, who have lived there for generations.

These residents, mainly fishermen, hold registered deeds and have paid land taxes, yet face legal challenges due to provisions in the existing Waqf Act of 1995. The nature of the law allows the Waqf Board to claim properties it deems as its own, even bypassing civil courts and relegating disputes to Waqf Tribunals. The transparency and fairness of Waqf Tribunals have been a long-standing issue for many who must deal with it.

BJP found common ground with the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), a powerful body representing the Syro-Malabar, Latin, and Syro-Malankara Catholic Churches on the issue of Munambam land dispute, prompting it to back the Bill and urging Kerala’s Members of Parliament to support the Waqf Amendment Bill, calling certain provisions of the current Act “unconstitutional and unjust”.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, KCBC president, cited the Munambam case where Farook College, which originally sold the land, confirmed it was a gift—not Waqf property. After becoming the state president of BJP, one of the first meetings of Rajeev Chandrashekhar was on Tuesday with Cardinal Cleemis, who by then issued the appeal. After meeting him, Chandrashekhar said: “I thanked him for the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council’s appeal to Kerala MPs to support the Waqf Amendment Bill. It is absolutely incorrect and mischievous for anyone to categorise this Bill as against any community…”

Though sources suggest some Kerala Congress MPs reached out to the Church describing it as “political compulsion”, the BJP ensured the Christian community at large, and the Church in particular, are upset with the party where it was seen disregarding an appeal by KCBC.

MUSLIMS WON’T BE HAPPY EITHER

Minority affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, while presenting the amended Bill, went poetic to make his point: “Meine ek shama jalai hai, hawaon ke khilaf (I have lit a lamp against the force of the wind)”. The force he was referring to was not just his political opponent who alleged on the floor of the House that the Bill was anti-Muslim but also organisations like Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, a premier organisation of Deobandi theological leaning, and Jamat E Islami, which has been at the forefront of advocacy against the new Waqf Bill and preservation of Waqf properties.

It would be ironic to even suggest that the Congress stands to lose Muslim votes in Kerala for opposing the Bill. While these organisations have tried to keep their grip on the Waqf Board and hence, would be happy about the Congress’s positioning inside the House, there is a vast section of victims in Kerala who happen to be from the Muslim community and are entangled in legal battles with the Waqf board after their properties were allegedly taken over using the old law. They would be upset with the Congress.

There are reportedly 40,951 pending cases related to Waqf properties in Waqf tribunals across India as of recent updates. Out of these, approximately 9,942 cases have been filed by members of the Muslim community against Waqf Boards. This suggests that at least 20 per cent of the total disputes involve Muslims challenging the Waqf Boards’ actions or claims, such as encroachment, property mismanagement or ownership disputes.

An estimate suggests that there are as many as 1,008 litigations in Kerala that pertain to Waqf properties. Of these, there are only 457 cases where non-Muslims are involved while there are a whopping 551 cases where Muslims are battling the Waqf system in place, making it a little above 54 per cent of the total litigations as of the autumn of 2024. These Muslim families want a fair hearing and seeing Congress bat for a system that denied them so will definitely translate into angst.

In his speech at the BJP headquarters on November 23, 2024, following the party’s landslide victory in the Maharashtra elections, PM Narendra Modi stated: “Waqf is an act of appeasement politics by the Congress, and it has no place in the Constitution.” Members of the Union cabinet suggest that after this legislation, the Waqf’s power will be back in the hands of what government sources call “the original guardians of India’s syncretic values — Sufi, Barelwi and Shia Muslims for whom Waqf has always been a matter of faith”.

Location :

Kerala, India, India