Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha and party leader Fayaz Ahmed have decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the party to challenge the Waqf Amendment Bill which received the assent of the President on Saturday to become a law.
The RJD leaders argued that the act could have significant implications for the management of Waqf properties. The duo will approach the apex court tomorrow, ANI reported.
Opposition parties, the Congress, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan have also moved the top court challenging the act.
Tejashwi Yadav on Waqf Act
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said the Waqf act will be thrown into “dustbin” if his party formed the government in Bihar after the upcoming election.
“We believe that today Muslims are being targeted and tomorrow it may be the turn of Sikhs and Christians,” he said.
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Yadav claimed the bill was brought to divert public attention away from problems like unemployment. He said his party wouldn’t let the BJP implement the bill in Bihar.
He also slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is battling an internal rift within the party over the Waqf act, saying the JD(U) was trying to hard sell the legislation. “They are trying hard, but without success, to prove that the Bill will benefit Muslims. Just look at how the JD(U) has forced its Muslim leaders to address a press conference, which was quite a fiasco,” PTI quoted Yadav saying.
Protests rock Bihar
Earlier in March, protests rocked the Bihar legislative assembly as the opposition members demanded its rollback and the full implementation of Sachar Committee recommendations to improve the socio-economic conditions of Muslims.
Opposition leaders, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad and leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav, backed protests by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) demanding the scrapping of the bill.
Tejashwi Yadav had told the AIMPLB gathering that “we believe in your cause and our party had expressed the same before the Joint Parliamentary Committee when it came to Bihar. We will fight it out till this ‘Nagpuriya’ undemocratic and unconstitutional legislation is rolled back”. He was alluding to the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the ruling BJP at the Centre.