New Delhi, April 2 KC Venugopal, Congress MP from Kerala, launched a blistering attack at the Centre over the ‘discriminatory’ Waqf Amendment Bill and stated that the only motive behind this contentious bill was to push its agenda of hatred and dividing the country in name of religion.
Congress General Secretary, joining the marathon debate on Waqf Bill in LS, took strong objection to allocation of non-Muslim members in the Waqf Board Council and asked, “whether this would sow seeds of hatred or not”.
“You are discriminating and targeting a certain community. This is a direct attack on the Constitution,” he said, lashing out at the BJP and Centre.
Venugopal also invoked the Vaishno Devi Temple Act to buttress his claims on alleged discrimination against Muslim community.
“As per Vaishno Devi Act, the Lieutenant Governor, who remains the final deciding authority on the famed temple, should be a practicing Hindu and if he is not one, any other eminent official should replace him and he/she must be from the Hindu faith,” he said.
Taunting the Minority Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju over boasting of Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC)’s support to the legislation, he said that many churches have been attacked under successive BJP governments, "but you never took any action against the hooligans and miscreants".
“Today, you have brought legislation against Muslims. Tomorrow, it will be against other minorities, including Christians and Sikhs,” he remarked.
The Congress MP also mentioned Sangh Parivar in his tirade and accused it extending ‘tacit support’ to the legislation. He alleged that it was BJP ideologue's hidden agenda is to destroy the minorities of the country by attacking their religious freedom.
He said that "Modi government talks of making the country a world leader but such ‘regressive’ policies like this will only earn India a back name on global stage".
"Targeting religious freedom will lead to damaging consequences. The government must prioritise peace, harmony and brotherhood over spreading hatred," he stated.
Further taking the government to task on issues like unemployment and poverty, he said that youngsters of the country are unemployed and are in despair, farmers are suffering but for the government, it’s only agenda is to divide the nation on basis of religion.
He also pointed to Rijiju's multiple references to the ‘non-discriminatory’ nature of the bill and said that his claims are an admission of guilt.
Rijiju repeatedly stated that this bill is not against any religion. If its not directed against Muslims, then why there is guilt on your mind?” he asked.
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