RSS focus shifts to Catholic Church land after successful passage of waqf bill in the Parliament
The web portal of an RSS-linked magazine has in an article obliquely sought to draw the Narendra Modi government’s attention towards the land held by the Catholic Church after the successful passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Parliament.
In an article titled “Who has more land in India? The Catholic Church vs Waqf Board debate”, the web portal of Organiser has claimed that the land holding of the Catholic institutions stands at 7 crore hectares, terming it “the largest non-governmental land owner”.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill proposes sweeping changes to the 1995 Waqf Act to give the government significant powers to regulate waqf properties and settle disputes. A waqf property is an endowment made by a Muslim for religious, educational and charitable causes, and the legislation has drawn flak for allegedly enabling the government to gain control over the land held by the waqf boards.
To push through the contentious legislation, the BJP had used the support to the bill by the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council to taunt the Opposition. The article in the web portal appeared to be setting the agenda for a similar move aimed at the Catholic Church.
“According to the Government Land Information website, as of February 2021, the Indian government owned approximately 15,531 square kilometres of land… While the Waqf board does own significant land parcels across various states, it does not surpass the holdings of the Catholic Church in India,” an article by Sashank Kumar Dwivedi posted on Organiser.org stated.
“Reports suggest that the Catholic Church of India owns around 7 crore hectares (17.29 crore acres) of land throughout the country… The total estimated value of these properties is around ₹20,000 crore, making the Church a significant player in India’s real estate landscape,” it added.
The RSS-BJP had been traditionally known to target Christian missionaries for allegedly resorting to religious conversions through allurement and coercion. In recent times, however, the issue has been put on the back burner as part of a poll strategy to woo Christian voters in the northeastern states, Kerala and Goa.
The article said that most of the land acquired by the Catholic Church was during the British period, stressing that many of them had been obtained through “questionable means”. The article goes on to obliquely draw the government’s attention to a 1965 circular to take over land leased to the Church that failed due to poor enforcement.
“In 1965, the Indian government issued a circular stating that any land granted on lease by the British government would no longer be recognised as Church property. However, due to lax enforcement of this directive, the legitimacy of certain Church-owned lands remains unresolved,” it said.
Source: TheTelegraph