NEW DELHI: Kashmiri leader and Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday engaged with the formal democratic process for the first time in over a decade when he deposed before the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on Waqf Act amendments and resisted changes to the parent law.
The committee is tasked with reviewing the controversial Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, that seeks to amend the 1995 law regulating Waqf properties in the country. Waqf is defined as a “dedication of movable or immovable properties for charitable, religious or pious purposes under Muslim law”.
The last time the Hurriyat Conference had any interface with the government or parliamentary system was under late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Speaking to The Tribune about his presence at the JPC a development the ruling BJP hailed as the strength of Indian democracy Mirwaiz said he was open for dialogue and hopeful that his concerns about the amendments would be addressed.
“This is the first time we have come to participate in a democratic system since the days of the late PM Manmohan Singh. We are happy to have met with the JPC. The path of dialogue was shown by the ruling BJP’s own ancestors, especially late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We are here with an open mind. We did not choose the path of agitation to oppose Waqf law changes. Instead, we decided to come to Delhi and participate in the consultative process. We are hopeful we will be heeded,” said Mirwaiz.
The separatist leader, who recently said he was ready to talk with the Centre to resolve the Kashmir issue, reiterated that the Hurriyat may have its differences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA dispensation on the Kashmir approach but was willing to talk. “The current BJP leadership is fully capable of moving forward…. We need a fair closure to the Kashmir issue. We do not want another generation to be lost to conflict. Fair closure would involve efforts to have a dialogue with the people of the Valley,” he said. Citing Vajpayee’s famous proposal to resolve the Kashmir issue in the framework of “insaniyat (humanism), jamhooriyat (democracy) and Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri culture)”, Mirwaiz said the Kashmir issue required humanistic handling.
Asked whether the Hurriyat had reconciled with Article 370 being history, Mirwaiz said, “Article 370 may no longer be there in Jammu and Kashmir, but the Kashmir issue is there, it remains. People are not happy, they need to be engaged.”
Deposing before the JPC in his capacity as chairman of Muttahida Majlis-E-Ulema (MMU), the foremost representative body of all major Islamic organisations, Muslim scholars and educational institutions of Jammu and Kashmir, Mirwaiz urged for Waqf law amendments to be rejected and for the Muslim community to be engaged over their concerns around the proposed changes.
His memorandum read: “We want to make it clear that the Muslim majority region of Jammu and Kashmir feels very strongly about these amendments to the Waqf Act, seeing it as another attempt at undermining our religious freedom and the autonomy of our institutions.” Welcoming Mirwaiz’s decision to meet the JPC, BJP members in the committee said it was good he was involving himself with the constitutional process after advocating separatism in the Valley for years. BJP MP and JPC member Sanjay Jaiswal, citing Mirwaiz’s deposition to the JPC that the proposed Waqf law amendments “violated Muslim personal law protected by Article 25 of the Constitution”, said, “The best part is Mirwaiz citing his constitutional rights as a minority to express resistance to different clauses of the Bill.”
Asked how he landed in Delhi to meet the JPC, Mirwaiz said, “The JPC did not come to the Valley to engage the stakeholders on the issue. So, we decided to come to Delhi and meet them.” “We had also sent requests for the JPC’s visit to the Valley through panel member Asaduddin Owaisi. When the committee did not turn up, we decided to come here. But we were granted an audience only at the fag end of the process of finalisation of the new Bill. We can only hope for our concerns to be taken on board. We gauged that the JPC’s mind on the Bill was already made up,” Mirwaiz said.