CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday strongly defended the Waqf Act and attacked the Congress opposition to it as nothing but the party’s appeasement policy. Addressing a rally at Hisar in Haryana on the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, he dared the Congress to select a Muslim as its president or allocate 50% of tickets to Muslim candidates if it truly cared for the community.Before the rally, Modi laid the foundation stone of the new terminal building of the Maharaja Agrasen Airport worth over Rs 410 crore and flagged off a commercial flight to Ayodhya. He reiterated his promise that even those wearing slippers would fly in aeroplanes, saying that the vision is now being realised countrywide. Modi accused the Congress of turning SCs, STs, and OBCs into “second-class citizens” when in power. He cited the case of Karnataka, where the government turned the reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs into an appeasement tool, granting reservations in government tenders based on religion. He said that the Constitution has no such provision. The PM said the Congress appeasement policies significantly harmed the Muslim community, benefiting only a few and leaving the rest of society uneducated and impoverished. On the availability of vast tracts of land under Waqf boards, the PM said that they were meant to benefit the poor, destitute women and children but were exploited by a handful of land mafia. He claimed that the mafia was encroaching on lands belonging to SCs, tribals and backward classes, leaving the Pasmanda Muslim community without any benefits.Defending the new Waqf Act, he said the amendments would end such exploitation, ensuring that Waqf Boards cannot touch tribal lands. He described this as a major step in protecting tribal interests.
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