Yasir Ali Mirza for BeyondHeadlines
The condition of religious endowments particularly the state of affairs of waqf properties are quite disgusting in the country. After the independence, the waqf properties have been constantly dwindling day by day. These are the Muslim minority’s only resources in the country where all the socio-economic problems would have been resolved without putting extra pressure on government exchequer if it managed properly. But it was systematically plundered with the connivance of motawallis, waqf board officials, land mafias and government officials. It can no longer be saved by the toothless acts and laws.
About 3,00,000 wakf properties on about 4,00,000 acres of land are registered with waqf boards across the country coming after Defence and Railways. Now the leftover waqf properties accounts for only few acres of land. And, in Bihar there is no exception. The already crisis-ridden state where the demand of land reforms have been a thorny issue of successive governments and also a war cry for the Naxalites, the waqf properties are easy targets. In Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s ‘Su-Shasan’ Raj the metamorphosis of criminals or petty politicians into the ‘property dealers’ have made this issue more complex. The mobility of the population from rural to urban spaces added another dimension to this phenomenon. These ‘property dealers’ have indulged in lucrative business of land brokering to gain more and more monetary profits from these windfalls and thus the prices of land properties are gone exorbitantly high.
In Bihar’s Muzaffarpur town, there were prominent waqf estates of both Shias and Sunnis—Al-Haj Nawab Sayyid Mohammad Taqui Khan Waqf Estate and Nawab Sayyid Mehdi Hassan Waqf Estate belong to Shia Muslims and, Sughra Begum Waqf Estate owned by Sunni Muslims. Properties of both the estates were grievously mismanaged alike by its own individuals or institutions responsible for protecting it. There were about 32 registered Shia waqfs in Muzaffarpur in particular and 228 in Bihar in general. Sunni Waqf Board has 2,426 registered waqf properties in the state.
Maulana Syed Mohammad Kazim Shabib’s indomitable effort for spearheading a public agitation against the selling off the Waqf land added another chapter in endless saga of plundering Waqf properties in the country. The Qom-studied cleric who is also the Friday prayer leader of Shia Jama Masjid has become a face of public opposition for saving the waqf properties in the state. The son of a city’s renowned surgeon and himself a renowned Shia cleric of Bihar, Maulana Kazim is leading the opposition against the alleged waqf loot. He has been working so tirelessly for the upliftment of the society that he left lucrative assignments abroad. His shocking revelation about the colossal misappropriation of one of the largest waqf estate of Bihar of Nawab Sayyid Mohammad Taqui Khan Waqf Estate in Muzaffarpur and his efforts for saving the waqf properties has turned up into a public interest issue and remained a challenging task for the administration. His effort has exposed how the Motawalli hand-in-glove with unaccountable Bihar State Shia Waqf Board officials and land mafias are going to sell waqf lands. Despite murder conspiracy which has been divulged after an input from local CID team he firmly stayed in the ground and declined security guards repeatedly offered by the local administration.
The Taqui Khan Waqf Estate has been established in Muzaffarpur in 1888, three years after Congress Party came into being in India. Nawab Syed Mohammad Taqui Khan was a great philanthropist at that time who gave 84 Bigha of land and instituted a Jogiara Trust to establish Zila School in 1845. According to his waqf title deed, he donated 1/3 of his personal wealth into the waqf estate. He incorporated thousands of acres of land in 17 villages in three different districts into it to generate revenue to run the affairs. He also donated few bighas in the periphery of Bada Imambada and Jama Masjid built by him in Mohalla Kamra in Chandwara locality of Muzaffarpur town. One can easily be ascertain the fact that how much the waqf estate was wealthier that in one clause of the deed mentioned that on the day of Eid-e-Ghadeer Rs. 1200 (approximately Rs. 1,20,000 of today’s market value) should be spend. But, within 125 years after its establishment only a small piece of land remained in and around the Imambada and Masjid and all the expenditures are being met by public money pooling.
Modus Operandi
Although, the plundering of Waqf properties is not a new trend. The fault line lies in the Land Revisionary Survey programme carried out by government after independence between 1962 and 1972 when lots of waqf or non-waqf land has been transferred to another individual name without getting verified by appropriate chain of documents or records given by the occupants. In the meantime, most of motawallis have fraudulently and intently transferred the waqf plots by inserting the name of their own or their relatives’ and got ‘continuous khatian’ (ownership document) as a new and only land record belonging to them without having title deeds. In this gambit, waqf board covertly helped them by removing either original waqf title deeds or certain pages where the precise area of a particular waqf have been mentioned in it and other land records that no one could ascertain the actual area of land. On the contrary, board officials have indulged in profiteering business as well. Apart from selling off waqf lands, they also made claims on private properties as waqf that had not been registered with the board ever. In return, they get lot of bribes in hushing the matters up. Some board officials have allegedly acquired millions of unaccounted wealth even on their servants or close acquaintances’ name.
‘We Shall Fight, We Shall Win’
Mr. Ali Mohammad Maaz, Delhi-based senior lawyer and an expert on Waqf issues, pitifully says, “Waqf Boards have become centres of blatant corruption and there is no transparency and accountability. The government apathy towards waqf properties and lack of stringent laws led to the plundering of such priceless resources. It is a deliberate attempt to grab the lands belonging to the waqf to give politico-economic patronage to politicians of criminal background because it is an easy target to be reckoned with. In the end it will cease to exist.”
In a telephonic interview with Board’s inspector Mr. Syed Arif Raza, who have been allegedly acquired millions of benami properties said, “We do not have any land records regarding the Taqui Khan Waqf Estate and we are also trying to procure it.” On the issue of corruption he astutely said, “We are ready to face any investigation even CBI probe in embezzlement of funds or land misappropriation.” But the Chairman Mr. Syed Mohsin Ali Masoomi, declined to comment on this whole episode by disconnecting his mobile phone. Despite repeated assurance in a public meeting in Muzaffarpur, he pledged, on record, to sort out this issue before Ramazan. But nothing has been done so far.
On the contrary, Waqf Board seemed to be aligning with the land grabbers by issuing some annoying and provocative notices to the government officials by alleging Maulana Kazim for creating unnecessary uproar. On asking about allegations the stubborn cleric, who had a bypass heart surgery five years ago firmly said, “The Waqf board itself has become a rotten institution indulging in blatant corruption and misappropriation of waqf properties. Its officials have become a billionaire over nightly and it must be probed by the government investigation agencies.” He rubbished all the claims/concerted efforts made by his detractors to tarnish his image and integrity and affirmatively said, “In this issue, they have mollycoddling the sacked Motawalli and trying to divert the issue by not accepting the removal of corrupt Motawall in a public resolution which has been carried out in a total compliance with the title deed. We are morally and religiously compelled to abide by the rules written in the deed to sack the dishonest caretaker and to save the property bequeathed for the betterment of needy and poor people from destruction within the given space prescribed by our constitution. In this case we will go to the end. We shall fight we shall win Inshallah!”
An unemployed and enraged youth Syed Nabi Sher angrily said, “Motawalli chori aur uspar se seena-zori kar rahe hain. Hum Imam Hussain ki azadari karne waley waqf ki zameen bachane ke liye jaan tak qurbaan kar denge” (They are robbing with conviction. We the mourners of Imam Hussain (Third Imam in Shi’i tradition who got martyred in Karbala and became a metaphor of righteousness) will sacrifice even our lives to save the waqf properties.
The deadly trio: Chairman-Motawalli-Land Mafia nexus
After the boom in real estate sector, the Waqf Board official–Motawalli–Land Mafia nexus have started a new selling spree. The criminalization of politics proved to be a potential pitfall in land brokering business. It brought them into a money-spinning affair. Ironically, the unaccountable Waqf Board officials, in the guise of its custodian, explicitly encouraged motawallis to sell off the large tracts of land on cheaper prices. The selling off the waqf properties of Imam Family (Sir Ali Imam and Hassan Imam, the two brothers were the prominent figure of Independence period) on state capital’s posh locality is the live example of it. They could not do anything and the billions of worth property have siphoned off from the heart of Patna’s Exhibition Road and Fraser Road where the erstwhile office of Shia Waqf Board was also situated in the vicinity. It was given to a criminal-turned-politician and now the big malls and commercial complexes were erected. Imam Baandi Begum Waqf Estate of Gulzarbagh, Patna also met the same fate. Another Shia waqfs of Motihari, Bhagalpur, Purnea, Darbhanga, Chhapra, Siwan etc have suffered as well.
Likewise, few years ago Mr. Abid Asghar roped in a petty politician-turned-land broker, Karnal Hussain into his concern. Mr. Hussain was thrown out from his party for the alleged embezzlement of funds. Since, he has been playing a key role in selling the land around the Imambada and Masjid. He also encroached about the 3520 sq ft. of waqf land other than the 880 sq ft. of land he acquired after the permission of board in 1990s. Maulana has also demanded to the local administration to summarily evict the encroachments on which a two-storey building has been built. And, despite public uproar Chairman has shown a lackadaisical attitude to solve the problem. On the contrary, he took a partial stand by not replacing the motawalli with Syed Safdar Hussain Jafari, who has been selected in a full public meeting in August and preceded by majority and 700 written public endorsements.
Contesting Arguments
Interestingly, the beleaguered Motawalli Syed Abid Asghar alias Tibbi who is also the son of ex-Motawalli Syed Asghar Hussain and working in State PWD as an engineer is contesting on argument that the waqf has only four and half bighas of land in the precincts of Imambada. On the contrary, people under the leadership of Maulana Kazim asked that he should prove from any records to justify his claims either they will provide an old record (post-year1894-95 survey record called as Register-2 in common parlance) procured from District Record Room that the total measurement of area is 7 Bigha 10 Kattha & 12 Dhoor (2,65,232 sq ft.). Even, it has been corroborated by one of the records, as the Register-2 suggests that till 2002 the total measurement of waqf lands were the same.
Failing to provide any solid documentary evidence, Mr. Asghar straightaway rejected the claim saying that it is not necessary that particular plots were the part of waqf estate. He also promised, on record, in a public meeting to return back the land to the qaum if it proved. Many older people gave testimony that the present building that sacked motawalli claims to be his ancestral house purposefully built for the accommodation of Zakireen or Majlis Speakers. When Asghar Hussain became the caretaker, he shifted into it and gradually encroached on adjacent lands. Now, the beleaguered Mr. Asghar and their close aides are willing to take this issue in the legal course to prolong the controversy as long as they could. But Maulana is adamant to solve this issue in the light of Sharia law, law of the land and public sentiments. Some stooges also got indulged in vilification campaign against Maulana’s activism by circulating many anonymous letters full of ill words and verbal spats to weaken the movement and to provoke the public sentiment to disrupt the administrative initiatives.
Evidently, Waqf is an incredible asset that can be utilized for betterment of the Muslim community. Without the stringent accountability, the Muslim community has failed to build the waqf into a strong institution. Moreover, it landed into a horrible condition likewise the Muzaffarpur’s Shia as well as the Sunni waqf estates. However, the recently Waqf Ammendment Bill passed by the Parliament on the commendable efforts of Union Minority Affairs Minister Mr. K. Rehman Khan is a weaker recourse to act against the land grabbers. Rather it has equipped with for saving the residual properties. The utmost duplicity perhaps is that the men who violate the religious spirit of socio-economic upliftment behind the concept of Waqf then pretend to be devout and pious believers. The next few months will give the testimony that how much the Government is so serious to solve these thorny issues and how much it has will power to nab its own corrupt aides who has penetrated into the government institutions and engaged in plundering waqf lands which has become a synonym for a daylight robbery. Next election is just round the corner and the Aam Aadami Party has already knocked at the door with its war cry of corruption-free governance and the people are still wailing amid despair and hope.
[The author is a Research Scholar at Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), New Delhi.]
