“Today’s voting on bill will decide which party is secular,” Kapil Sibal slams govt on Waqf Bill

Sibal, speaking to media ahead of the introduction of the Waqf bill in the Lok Sabha, said that the BJP-led government has a single point agenda behind this bill, and that is to target and harass a certain community

New Delhi: Former Law Minister Kapil Sibal went all guns blazing against the Centre over the Waqf Amendment Bill on Wednesday, accusing it of singling out a particular community and devising ways to target it for electoral gains.

Sibal, speaking to media ahead of the introduction of the Waqf bill in the Lok Sabha, said that the BJP-led government has a single point agenda behind this bill, and that is to target and harass a certain community.

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He listed out many policies of the Centre, including the Uniform Civil Code, Love Jihad, and Bulldozer justice, and said the government was using them as ‘tools’ to target the particular religious community.

He said that the voting on the Waqf Bill will show which party is secular and which one is working with a motivated agenda. “It has to be seen how its alliance partners, including Nitish, Naidu and Paswan’s party vote on the Waqf bill. Nitish’s JD(U) has its electoral compulsions because of the imminent Assembly elections in Bihar and may opt to walk out. Chirag Paswan’s LNJP may adopt the same strategy to give the BJP mileage in the numbers game,” he said.

“Naidu’s TDP objected to one of the clauses of the bill which entrusts district collector with the power to decide the nature of land. But, this is not enough,” he stated.

Sibal, one of the foremost lawyers, also questioned the Modi government for not bringing reforms in the Hindu religion.”I want to ask PM Modi – why doesn’t he want to bring reforms in the Hindu religion? Why do you attain silence when religious places of minorities are targeted? In the Hindu code bill, women are denied the right to property because of a certain will; how can they be denied equal opportunity?” he asked.

He further said that the reforms, including Triple Talaq were a good and progressive step, but it should be uniform. “The reforms should be uniform for all and not selective against any community. This is against the spirit of the country’s democracy and constitution,” he said.

Sibal also slammed the government over the inclusion of people from different faiths in the Waqf Board. He further claimed that PM Modi had made big promises, but today, his governance has been reduced to trivial issues like UCC, love jihad.

“Why bigger issues of development like Smart cities, climate change, economic growth and others have been put on the backburner,” he asked. “Religion-based politics won’t yield any substantial result, it will only spread hatred. This will only create anarchy and derail the constitutional principles,” he added.