Mission Malabar, a project to carve out an Islamic State incorporating Muslim majority regions in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is in full swing, according to political leaders and former intelligence professionals. Mustafa Mundupara, leader of Samasta Youth Sangham had called for carving out a separate Malabar State while addressing a public meeting in the month of Jund 2024.
“With the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution by the BJP-led Government at the Centre, the extremist and terrorist organizations operating out of Kashmir have shifted their bases to Kerala and Karnataka. The present Waqf Board controversy is part of the mission to drive out infidels from Muslim dominated regions in these States,” Kevin Peter, founder president, Christian Alliance and Association for Social Action (CAASA), told The Pioneer.
According to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the word Waqf means properties dedicated exclusively for religious or charitable purposes under Islamic Law and any other use or sale of the property is prohibited. In India, Waqf Board controls 8.7 lakh properties spanning 9.4 lakh acres with an estimated vale of Rs 1.2 lakh crore. India has the largest Waqf holding in the world. Waqf Board is the largest land owner in India after the Armed Forces and Indian Railways.
In neighboring Karnataka, the Congress-ruled Government has asked the Revenue Officials to transfer 15,000 acres of land belonging to the farmers in Vijayapura district to the Waqf Board which would throw out thousands of poor people from their land where they have been staying for more than six decades with valid documents.
“Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his minister for minority affairs Zameer Ahmed Khan are trying to convert Karnataka into another Pakistan,” said Tejasvi Surya, MP and president of BJP’s National Youth.
Situation is no different in Tamil Nadu where the Waqf Board has claimed hectares of temple land and properties owned by non-Muslims. Rajagopal in Thiruchenthurai, a poor farmer who is struggling to sell his land to clear his debts is heart rending. Since the Waqf Board refuses to issue NOC to the sale, the farmer is caught between devil and deep sea.
Kevin Peter told this paper after visiting Munambam-Cherai, the coastal village along the sea shore in Ernakulam district from where 600 families have been asked to vacate by the local revenue officials. They had told the residents that the 450 acres of land where they are staying for more than six decades belong to Waqf Board.
Philip Joseph of Cherai who struggled for decades in West Asia and was a senior official to the Prime Minister of Kuwait returned to India with dreams of providing livelihood to the youths in this fishing hamlet. Taken aback by the Waqf Board stance, he is planning to return to Kuwait.
The laity that congregates at the Velankanni Church during every October say the rosaries with tears in their eyes. “Our only request to the Holy Mother is to save us from eviction and not to make us roofless,” Jesna Sanal, member of Cherai Panchayath. Decades ago, B Raman, former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat has written in one of his research papers that the hardcore Islamists are scheming to establish a corridor of Muslim majority regions in the three States linking them with former princely State of Hyderabad. The Waqf Board is executing the mission that was forecast by Raman, said Anantha Narayanan of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.
The BJP is the only political outfit to condemn the Waqf Board move. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan while releasing a book authored by P Jayarajan, state committee member of the CPI(M) said that though he was attending the function he was not in agreement with many views expressed by the author. The Congress too is silent on the Waqf Board demand though top leader of the party (the chief minister in waiting) asked the Christians to call off the agitation against the Waqf Board.
