Wakf Board: Manipulative politics of the Majlis

2004
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, July 7: Playing manipulative politics, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has successfully prevailed upon the Congress government to amend the Wakf Act to facilitate its re-entry into the multi-crore State Wakf Board.
The MIM, which sailed with the Telugu Desam when it was in power, suddendly changed its political stand to support the Congress after the State Assembly elections. The MIM enjoyed power in the State Wakf Board by joining hand with the TD and keeping the Congress off Wakf politics.
Now that the Congress is in power, the MIM has dumped the Telugu Desam to make a re-entry into the Wakf Board. To facilitate election of an MIM member, the Congress government amended the Wakf Act to increase the overall strength of the Board from nine to 11.
It also reduced the strength of MLA-members from two to one and increased the strength of MP-members from one to two. Earlier, the State government used to nominate four members to the Board and it has now increased it to six.
For the first time in a decade, the TD will go without a representation in the Board while the MIM will enjoy power in the country's largest Muslim endowment body for a successive second term despite a change in government.