Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 3 (ANI): Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday strongly criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for introducing the Waqf Bill, claiming that it is being used to distract from the government's inability to address the nation's key issues.

Taking to social media platform X, Yadav expressed his frustration with BJP's attempts to deflect attention from its economic and social failures.

'Whenever BJP brings a new bill, it actually hides its failures. BJP is unable to solve problems like demonetization, GST, recession, inflation, unemployment, starvation, electricity, water, health, education and housing, that is why it has brought the Waqf bill to divert attention,' Yadav stated.

He further pointed out that there are more pressing issues than the Waqf Bill, including the threat posed by China, 'A bigger issue than the Waqf land is the land on which China has built its villages, but this bill is being brought so that no one raises any question or uproar over the external threat.'

Yadav's criticism extended to the government's handling of the Waqf land, questioning whether the government could guarantee that such land would never be misused.

'The government should guarantee that the Waqf land will never be given to anyone else for any other purpose through any trickery,' he said.

He also raised concerns over the potential loss of constitutional rights under the new system, 'In the current system of Waqf, whether it is a matter of restriction on religious observance for 5 years or interference of survey by the Collector or inclusion of outsiders in the Waqf Council or Board... the purpose of all these is to snatch the constitutional rights of a particular class and reduce their importance and control.'

Yadav also critiqued the bill's provisions regarding judicial processes, saying that allowing appeals from the Waqf Tribunal to the High Court would only lead to protracted land disputes.

'Not accepting the decision of the tribunal as final and allowing it to be taken to the High Court will actually open the way to maintaining the occupation of Waqf land by trapping the land dispute in a long judicial process,' he warned.

He questioned whether the same provisions would apply to the religious trusts of other communities.

'Will a similar arrangement be made by including outsiders in the religious and charitable lands and trusts of other religions?' he asked.

The Samajwadi Party leader went further, accusing the BJP of attempting to seize control of Waqf lands and redistribute them to its supporters.

'BJP has its eyes on the Waqf lands. It wants to take control of these lands and hand them over to its people through the back door,' Yadav alleged.

According to him, the BJP's real intention behind the bill was to create polarization within the Muslim community. 'BJP wants that by bringing the Waqf Bill, the Muslim community should feel that their rights are being violated, they should get agitated and BJP should get an opportunity to do the politics of polarization,' he said.

Yadav also criticized the BJP for its reluctance to engage with other political parties on the issue, calling it 'political obstinacy.'

'BJP is an undemocratic party; it considers dissent as its strength. When most of the political parties of the country are against the Waqf Bill, then what is the need to bring it and why is there stubbornness?' he said.

The Samajwadi Party President expressed his concerns about the secular fabric of the nation being undermined by the bill.

'The introduction of the Waqf Bill will send a wrong message to the whole world. This will be a big blow to the secular image of the country,' he said. He accused the BJP of using the bill as a tool for political gain and inflaming communal tensions. 'The Waqf Bill is a reprehensible conspiracy of BJP's negative politics.'

Yadav in his critique in his post on X predicted that the bill would backfire on the BJP. 'The Waqf Bill will prove to be a Waterloo for the BJP,' he concluded. (ANI)