Where history meets the law

Hyderabad: "Saveus from this womb-to-tomb rule from the graves" – This is the plea that about 300 plot owners of Pallavi Enclave of Guttala Begumpet of Hyderabad are chanting, as they are all set to reach out to the Joint Parliamentary Committee to which the proposed Waqf Amendment Bill-2024 was referred by the Centre during the monsoon session of the parliament.

Following several objections raised to the bill, a 31-member Joint Parliamentary Committee was formed to examine the Waqf Amendment Bill 2024. The committee was asked to submit its report by the end of the first week of the ensuing parliament session. Two of the Members of the Parliament from Telangana, viz., All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and BJP national vice-president and Mahbubnagar Member of Parliament D K Aruna happen to be the members of the panel from Telangana.

Following this, the AIMIM chief opposed the amendment, dubbing it being driven by the communal agenda of the ruling party at the Centre. The Telangana State Waqf Board has also passed a resolution opposing the Centre's move to amend the existing Waqf Act.

Against this backdrop, the owners of Pallavi Enclave of Guttala Begumpet village have decided to reach out to the JPC to present their case and how they have been made to shuttle from the lower courts to the Supreme Court for decades, only to start the litigation all over again.

The plot owners belonging to lower and middle-income groups were all set to present their case to the JPC about how they had purchased the lands after due verification of all the necessary legal antecedents, which were later favoured by the legal verdicts by the courts, dismissing the ownership claims of the Telangana State Waqf Board.

Devendra Reddy Mettu, one of the plot owners, told The Hans India, "Most of the plot owners purchased the plots after due verification from all the known legal antecedents of the land. The present land owners of the plots are the people who have purchased the lands from their savings." Further, some who purchased these lands died. They bought the lands to have their dream houses in their life. Some parents and grandparents (who are no more} have purchased the plots for their children's and grandchildren's future.”

He asked, "What kind of hell is this law? It is like someone taking a cab to Khuldabad village in the Aurangabad district of the neighbouring Maharashtra. Come back to Hyderabad and claim that they have an oral gift for 'a' or 'any' land of their 'liking' or 'choice' from the Moghul emperor, from his tomb, and declare it as Waqf property.

It may be mentioned here that the Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb had left his capital Delhi behind leaving it to its fate. To take on his Maratha adversaries on a two-decades-long Deccan campaign, as they were taking fort after fort of Moghul's in Deccan.

Only to realise his battle was a losing wicket after he had lost most of his five lakh army and breathed his last despondent of his unachieved dream of his Deccan campaign.

However, this goes missing in the CBSE and State Board-prescribed textbooks taught in the classrooms in schools and colleges. Does teaching censored historical writings for the past 75 years need another JPC? It remains a million-dollar question.