Days after it termed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill a “direct attack on Muslims”, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board held a protest in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Monday, upping its ante against the contentious legislation.
The demonstration was joined by several leading Muslim religious outfits, with their leaders being flanked by several opposition politicians such as AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress’ Tarun Gogoi and Salman Khurshid, TMC’s Mahua Moitra, and Samajwadi Party’s Mohibullah Nadvi among others.
Critics of the bill have raised concerns about the “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional” aspects of the bill, and even termed it a way of “usurping Muslim properties”. In the wake of Rajya Sabha accepting a parliamentary report on the legislation and the opposition’s allegations about the government censoring dissent notes, the bill’s opponents are now planning to challenge the legislation in the Supreme Court.
A section of the media, meanwhile, saw this as yet another opportunity to complain about Muslims and opposition leaders.
Throwing nuance out the window, news channels on Monday presented an overly simplified version of the issue, burying facts under propaganda. From linking the Waqf protests to Aurangzeb to calling the demonstration “Shaheen Bagh Part 2”, there was little space for deliberations on the concerns of the Muslims community.
Here’s what they said.
News18 India
On his primetime show Aar Paar, Amish Devgan sandwiched the actual news between fiery and farfetched conclusions. In what seemed like a single breath, he drew tenuous connections between opposition parties, the Waqf protests, Shaheen Bagh, Aurangzeb sympathisers, and Jinnah mindsets.
“Aaj desh ne Shaheen Bagh Part 2 ka trailer dekha hai, viewers. Woh bhi rajdhani Dilli ke andar. Kyunki, All India Muslim Personal Law Board ne Jantar Mantar pe pradarshan kiya,” he proclaimed. (Viewers, today, the country watched the trailer of Shaheen Bagh Part 2. That too in the capital Delhi. Because, the AIMPLB has protested at Jantar Mantar.)
This is not the first time that the ghost of Shaheen Bagh has returned on primetime news to demonise a protest.
Devgan then accused the political parties, whose leaders lent support to the demonstration, of fighting elections against Narendra Modi and “coincidentally” supporting Aurangzeb.
He said: “Khaas baat hai ki iss pradarshan mein har woh party dikhi jo Shaheen Bagh ke waqt pradarshankariyo ke saath thi. Ittefaq ki baat hai ki yeh wohi sari partiya hai jinhone ghatbandhan banakar Narendra Modi ke khilaf chunav lada tha. Aur yeh bhi ittafak hai ki baat ke yeh jo paritya Waqf Board Amendment Bill [2024] ka virodh kar rahe hai, wohi partiya Aurangzeb ki himayat karnemein juti hu hai.”
Loosely translated, Devgan said leaders from “all the parties who supported Shaheen Bagh” were at the protest site, and that it’s a “matter of coincidence that these are the same parties that had formed an alliance and fought elections against Modi”. “And it is also a coincidence that the same parties that are opposing the Waqf Board Amendment Bill are involved in supporting Aurangzeb.”
The ticker diligently drove this point home: “Waqf aur Aurangzeb, kiska siyasi fareb? (Waqf and Aurangzeb, whose political fraud?)” With a picture of Bahadur Shah Zafar in the background though.
From Aurangzeb, Devgan then moved to Mohammad Ali Jinnah and, on his way, suggested that the opposition wanted to divide the country. Referencing allegations levelled by BJP supporter and former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam, Devgan claimed that Rahul Gandhi and Sanjat Raut harboured Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s “1947 dream” and that if they ever formed government, “they will do this”.
“Acharya Pramod Krishnam ka dawa hai ki Rahul Gandhi aur Sanjay Raut milkar Mohammad Ali Jinnah ka 1947 sapna dekh rahe hai. Kabhi inki sarkar bani toh yeh aisa karenge,” he warned his viewers.
Aaj Tak
On his primetime show Black and White, Sudhir Chaudhary insinuated that protests against the Waqf bill were a “tool for Hindu-Muslim politics”.
“Jab doosre Muslim desh apne waqf ke kanoon mein sudhaar kar rahe hai toh hamare desh mein Waqf ko Hindu-Muslim rajnaiti ka tool banaya ja raha hai,” he said. (When other Muslim countries are reforming their Waqf laws, in our country Waqf is being used as a tool for Hindu-Muslim politics.)
While listing the amendments in the 2024 Waqf (Amendment) Bill and the corresponding issues in the existing 1995 act, Chaudhary also erroneously mentioned that the current legislation does not have a clear procedure to survey Waqf lands. However, Chapter 2 of the Waqf Act, 1995, clearly mandates “a preliminary survey of waqf properties (religious endowments) by a Survey Commissioner appointed by the State Government”.
Times Now Navbharat
A voiceover on Sushant Sinha’s News Ki Pathshaala alleged that with protests against the Waqf bill, opposition leaders wanted to divide Hindus and Muslims. The show’s ticker read: “Hindu ekjutta badi… isiliye machi khalbali? (Hindu unity increases…is that why there is chaos?)”.
Another ticker said: “Owaisi, Rahul, Akhilesh, Mamata…musalman voton ki rajnaiti ka mauka (Owaisi, Rahul, Akhilesh, Mamata… opportunity for politics on Muslim votes)”.
A voiceover alleged that opposition parties were only portraying themselves as victims when their politics of “appeasement” failed.
“Siyasi maidan mein hara hai toh hungama kar, tushtikaran ka khel gadbadaya toh victim hone ka drama kar. Kuch chehre, iss formule pe khurafaat rachne ki firaaq mein hai aaj kal…(If you have lost in the political arena, then create a ruckus. When you bungle the game of appeasement, then pretend to be a victim. Some faces are planning to create mischief using this formula today)”, it said.
ABP News
ABP News chose to attack AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi in the context of both the Waqf issue and Aurangzeb. In its Monday bulletin, anchor Pratima Mishra accused Owasi of “raging over” both issues and using “religion in his arguments to such an extent that his entire speech is limited to Hindu versus Muslim”.
She said in Hindi: “Asaduddin Owaisi Waqf Bill se lekar Aurangzeb ke kabr wale vivaad takk garaj rahe hai… Par Owaisi apne takriron mein dharm ka aisa chauka lagate hai ke unka pura bhashan Hindu banam Musalman takk simat jaata hai.”
The ticker said “Waqf ho ya Aurangzeb ki kabr… Owaisi hue besabr (Be it Waqf or Aurangzeb's tomb... Owaisi became impatient)”.
Republic Bharat
On Republic Bharat, protests against the bill were painted as hateful and inciting communal violence.
A ticker on one of the shows claimed that “Desh mein danga chahti hai AIMPLB (AIMPLB wants riots in the country)”. “Musalmano ko bhadkate hue ‘bhaijaan’ (Bhaijaan inciting Muslims),” flashed another ticker as three panelists debated the bill and photos of skull cap wearing men donned the screen. No explanation given for using an Urdu word denoting a brother as a pejorative.
“Maulanaon ki ‘nafrati’ taqreer (Hateful speech of Muslim clerics),” declared another ticker on one of the channel’s bulletins. Suggesting that the Waqf Amendment Bill was beyond reproach, anchor Saloni Shrivastav said “…Kyunki yahan par jo faisle liye ja rahe hai woh behtar ke liye le ja rahe hai (Because, whatever decision are being taken here are for betterment”.
Anchor Saloni Shrivastav gave her verdict on why the protests were taking place: “Darasal yeh [protest] vote bachane ka talluk tha.” Loosely translated, she implied the protest was “about getting votes”.
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