Waqf Land: Can BJP Leverage the Issue to Win Over Christian Voters in Kerala?

A photo of police using water cannon to disperse BJP activists during their protest in front of the Secretariat against Waqf Board and the state government in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram.

(Photo: PTI)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has yet to make any significant electoral impact in Kerala, is trying hard to make quick inroads into the state's Christian community.

The latest case in point: Fanning up the Waqf land issue that erupted at Munambam near Kochi.

More than 600 families, most of them Christians, received notices from the Kerala State Waqf Board, saying the land they owned belonged to the board.

Siddique Sait, a trader from Kochi of Gujarati origin, donated the now disputed land to the charitable society that runs Farook College, Kozhikode, in 1950 to start an educational institution at Munambam on the same lines.

Under the Islamic law, Waqf is a deed that means donating property to God. Once an asset has been donated as Waqf, it cannot be sold, transferred, or given as a gift in the future. It is a gift to Allah to meet specific public or family needs like health care or education.

In the deed, those who donate specify the aim for which the land will be utilised. However, the Farook College society failed to do the same – and later sold out the land.

Caught in legal wrangles for many years, the Kerala State Waqf Board recently raised claims over the land, escalating friction between the two communities.

To make matters worse, supported by fringe Muslim groups, some members of the community formed the Waqf Protection Council to protect the land as it belongs to Islam and Allah (The God). To fish in troubled waters, the BJP also jumped in to support the Christian families and heighten emotions at the grassroots.

BJP's Campaign Against Waqf Boards

The issue came to the fore just before the bye-elections for the Wayanad Lok Sabha Constituency where former Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave way for his sister Priyanka Gandhi – and the Palakkad and Alathoor legislative constituencies were announced.

Cashing in on the issue, BJP state president K Surendran visited Munambam and extended his support to the agitation of the Christian families for the Waqf land which they have possessed with valid documents for the last many years. Across the state, BJP leaders unleashed a campaign against the Waqf Boards to garner support for the ongoing procedures for the amendment of the Waqf Act. Rather than the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP was eyeing the Palakkad legislative constituency where it hoped for a victory this time – but proved futile.

Former union minister and BJP leader V Muraleedharan speaks during a protest against Waqf Board and the Kerala government outside the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.

(Photo: PTI)

It is to be recalled that the lone electoral victory the BJP has won in Kerala in the recent past is one of actor Suresh Gopi in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat, where Christian vote share was much higher than other minority communities. It was a shock to both the Communist-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the ruling front of the state, and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), the opposition of Kerala.

For its efforts, the BJP had its first dividend in the bye-election of Priyanka Gandhi in Wayanad where it had grabbed the second slot following the Congress-led UDF in 171 polling booths, leaving the Communists in the third slot. The Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency is spread over seven legislative constituencies in three districts of Kerala, with three each in Wayanad and Malappuram, and one in Kozhikode. In Wayanad district, the BJP came first in booths and also amassed a significant vote share in key village panchayats and Sulthan Bathery municipality.

Significantly, all these polling booths are in known settler Christian citadels. Even in traditional Congress bastions like Pulppalli village and Mullankolly village panchayat – both Christian-dominated civic bodies – the BJP finished second whereas the Communists was left behind at the third slot.

Bringing the Waqf issue to the fore, the BJP aims to further widen a wedge in the Muslim-Christian relationship to grab a comfortable vote share in the state. The party had already managed to create a wedge between the two powerful communities of Kerala through the love jihad controversy, focusing on the issue of Muslim youngsters allegedly marrying Christian girls.

BJP Wayanad district president Prasanth Malavayal told The Quint that for the last many years, there is a tilt in Christian votes of settler belts towards the BJP. However, he denied the Waqf angle as the sole reason for the shift, saying there has been the same tilt among tribal voters and voters of the LDF.

“Rather than the Waqf issue, it has resulted from the developmental politics and the progressive policies followed by the NDA government at the Centre.”

Prasanth Malavayal, BJP Wayanad District president

All Other Political Parties on Alert

The Christian voters were part of the Communists vote bank for decades. Later on, came the Kerala Congress, with its roots in Christian belts of Central Travancore, which acted more or less as a political voice of the Christian community.

However, both the Communists and the Congress are worried about the new turn of things. The Communist-led LDF is on high alert over the shift in Christian votes towards the BJP. The LDF had perspired decades to bring the community closer to it through meticulous pro-farmer movements.

Veteran CPM (Communist Party of India (Marxist)) leader of Wayanad district, CK Saseendran, told The Quint that the increasing vote share of the BJP in Christian citadels is a threat to the secular fabric of Kerala which should be "discussed and resisted".

“We are already in discussions with progressive Christian groups on how to safeguard the secular nature of Kerala society from such a threat.”

CK Saseendran, Veteran CPM leader

But the Congress leadership is confident that it will be able to re-capture the vote share.

“This is just a passing phenomenon – and it will be short-lived,” said AP Anilkumar MLA, general convener of Priyanka Gandhi's election campaign. “Few votes in some isolated booths located in Christian citadels could not be termed as a trend,” he told The Quint, adding that Christians of Kerala will continue to be a vote bank of Congress.

But the trend is a point of hot debate in the Christian community itself which is already divided on the stand to be taken towards the BJP.

One group says the BJP should not be entertained as the meticulous lethargy of the BJP-led Central government resulted in the Manipur massacre which is still on unabated. The anti-BJP faction in the church also points out that the Sangh Parivar outfits are terrorising the Christian missionaries across the country. Cooking up fake cases supported by fabricated evidence, many priests who challenge the saffron agenda are behind bars, they point out.

“Such a thing is indeed happening across the churches in the Christian community in the state,” said Paul Thelakkatt, former spokesperson of Syro Malabar Church.

“First of all, many of the young priests have turned more and more communal these days.”

Paul Thelakkatt, former spokesperson of Syro Malabar Church

There are also financial reasons, as many of the church groups have been running on a shoestring budget during the last many years as the cash flow of charity funds from the West has been cut by the BJP regime, it was pointed out. The church leadership demanded a relaxation of this ‘money control’.

However, mainstream Muslim organisations have a feeling that the communal elements are complicating the Waqf issue to garner electoral benefits.

Waqf Board is just a government body like the Devaswom Board of Hindus controlled by the state, said Dr Fazal Gafoor, president of the Muslim Educational Society which runs more than 150 educational institutions in the state.

“The only thing is it has judicial powers,” he said, adding that the state can bring in necessary legislation to improve its efficacy in tune with the needs of the changing times. “The ruling party, whether it is the Congress, the BJP, or the Communists, they can control it,” he said.

The issue has a pan-India impact as in total 994 such Waqf properties have been alienated so far across the country, as informed by the Union government in the Parliament.

Tamil Nadu alone accounts for 734 such alienated Waqf lands which is again a non-saffron state where the BJP is yet to grab a significant role. This apart, the BJP is bringing new amendments to the Waqf Bill to assert more government control over it through the nomination of board members. The Joint Parliamentary Committee also started its consultation with the community leaders over the draft bill on the Waqf Act Amendment Bill 2024.

Another importance of the move is that Waqf has prime properties left unattended across the country donated by the faithful. According to the Waqf Assets Management System portal, there are 8,72,352 Waqf properties spread over 9.2 lakh acres of land under the control of 32 Waqf Boards across the country. The total estimated value of the Waqf properties is Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

(Jose Kurian is a Wayanad-based senior journalist who has formerly worked with The New Indian Express and Deccan Chronicle. He now regularly writes for Onmanorama Online, Inmathi Online, and 101 Reporters.)