‘Retaliation in guise of reform’: Cong on Waqf Amendment Act

New Delhi, April 17: The Congress on Thursday said the Waqf Amendment Act is not just “legally flawed” but “morally vacuous” and that it “attacks” the very soul of the Constitution.
The party also said the Supreme Court’s observations on the new waqf law have brought into focus the “very apprehensions” raised by the INDIA bloc inside and outside Parliament. Addressing a press conference here, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said the law attacks the rights of minorities in the name of reform and the party will not allow this to happen as the framers of the Constitution had not envisioned this. Singhvi along with Congress’ minorities department head Imran Pratapgarhi welcomed the Thursday’s development in the Supreme Court over the new law and thanked the top court for granting time to hear the important matter. The party said the Act was not aimed at improving but “infiltrating and controlling” the religious institutions. “I want to say this is not reform. It is retaliation in the guise of reform. Retaliation meticulously scripted, strategically timed, and constitutionally questionable. The Waqf Amendment Act is not an exercise in efficiency as it pretends to be. It is an exercise in erasure,” Singhvi said. “Behind the bland language of governance lies the bold ambition of control. Religious autonomy is being reduced to state-administered protocol. And community rights are being redrawn with bureaucratic pens”. (PTI)