New Delhi: The BJP will launch a fortnight-long public awareness campaign, aimed especially at Muslims, from April 20 to publicise the benefits of the Waqf (Amendment) Act and counter the opposition’s criticism of it, with party president JP Nadda and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju addressing its delegates on Thursday.
BJP office-bearers from across the country attended a workshop here as Nadda accused the opposition parties of misleading Muslims over the provisions of the amended law as part of its vote-bank politics.
He asserted that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is determined to make ‘pasmanda (backward)’ Muslims and women stakeholders in management and welfare programmes of the Waqf with transparent and efficient management of its properties, party sources said.
Members of Waqf boards from BJP-ruled states and the party’s organisation, including its minority wing, attended the day-long workshop.
Nadda said the new law, which came into effect on April 8, would help utilise Waqf properties for the welfare of poor Muslims and women, adding it would free these assets from the control of a small but influential section of people and open them for the minority community’s overall benefit.
The BJP president and Rijiju rejected the criticism that the law interfered with the rights of Muslims to manage their religious affairs.
The presence of non-Muslims in the Waqf Council and boards is all about management of properties and has nothing to do with religion,
they said.
Senior BJP leaders, including chief ministers and Union ministers, will highlight the government’s stand on the Act and how it seeks to benefit poor and backward Muslims, the sources said.
The publicity drive will also target Christians and tribals to highlight how the earlier law harmed their interests, which have been undone by the new Act, they added.