Will oppose Waqf Bill in both Houses: YSRCP shifts stance, puts TDP in a fix

Last Thursday, the Lok Sabha passed a motion to extend the tenure of this Joint Committee till the last day of the Budget session next year. The motion was moved by the panel chairperson and BJP MP, Jagdambika Pal.

The YSRCP had been silent on the Bill earlier. In the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the TDP, along with allies BJP and the Pawan Kalyan-led JanaSena Party (JSP), ousted the YSRCP from power in Andhra Pradesh, reducing it to just 11 Assembly and four Lok Sabha seats. The NDA constituents bagged the remaining 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats.

Now, a weakened YSRCP seems to be reaching out to the Muslim community by opposing the contentious Waqf Bill. The community accounts for 9.56% of the state population as per the 2011 Census.

Speaking to The Indian Express, YSRCP Lok Sabha MP P V Mithun Reddy said, “The Waqf Bill is being brought in without taking Muslims into confidence.” The YSRCP maintains that Waqf land belongs to the community and “cannot be forcefully taken away”, he said.

While calling it a “one-sided” Bill, the YSRCP MP said, “Muslim community leaders have submitted their side of the argument against the proposed amendments. They have not given their consent to amend the Waqf Bill.”

In the parliamentary panel, which was formed to look into the amendments and concerns around them, the YSRCP’s Vijaysai Reddy, a member of the panel, had raised objections, Mithun Reddy said. “We will oppose the Bill in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. We stand with the minority community on this,” he added.

However, the YSRCP had not opposed the Bill when it was brought in Parliament after the Lok Sabha polls. At the time the Opposition INDIA bloc had opposed the Bill in both Houses. “We are not with INDIA, so we did not oppose the Bill at the time. Now, after going through the Bill in detail, we realise that it is not in the best interest of the minority community,” said a YSRCP leader. The party has 11 MPs in the Rajya Sabha.

Explaining the YSRCP’s new position on the Bill, a party leader said it is looking to consolidate its base among the Christian and Muslim minorities to its advantage. “When the TDP is openly taking a communal stand, it is in our interest to consolidate the minority vote,” the leader alleged.

Recently, during the Tirupati laddu controversy, the TDP brought up Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Christian background, and Pawan Kalyan projected himself as a defender of Sanatan Dharma.

“As the Congress stands decimated in Andhra Pradesh after the bifurcation of the state in 2014, the YSRCP has been the party in which minorities have reposed their faith,” a YSRCP source said. After its Assembly poll rout, the YSRCP is now clutching at every vote it can get, the source said.

The YSRCP’s new stance has put the TDP on the back foot, especially since Muslim organisations have begun supporting Jagan Mohan Reddy for opposing the Bill. On Friday, a delegation from a Muslim body Jamaat-e-Islami Hind met Reddy to “appreciate the YSRCP’s stand on the Waqf Bill”.

The TDP appears to be in a bind now, even as its leadership has maintained that the party has always been secular. So far, the TDP leadership, including Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, has not issued a public statement on the Waqf Bill. In November, however, TDP leader Nawab Jan said the TDP will not pass “any Bill that harms Muslims”.

While the TDP, which is a key ally of the BJP at the Centre, may not have openly opposed the Bill, its leaders told The Indian Express that referring the bill to a parliamentary panel for scrutiny was done on the “TDP’s insistence”. “We had asked for the Bill to be referred for examination by a Joint Committee and it was granted,” a TDP leader said.