THE BJP has taken on the Kerala State Waqf Board over its claim on 400 acres of land at Munambam in Ernakulam, which is currently in the possession of 600-odd families, most of them Christian.

With the issue aligning with a Bill moved by the Centre to amend waqf board powers regarding land, the BJP has seized on the issue, with the ruling CPI(M) and Opposition Congress now scrambling to catch up. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has convened a high-level meeting next week to discuss the issue, while the Congress has suggested an all-party meeting for the purpose.

The Kerala case has parallels with Karnataka, where the BJP has the Congress government on the defensive over waqf board claims regarding land in Vijayapura district. Like in Karnataka, the row has gained momentum due to it coinciding with the Centre’s push on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

A legal dispute over the Ernakulam land has been pending in the Kerala High Court ever since 2022. The BJP turned its attention to it after the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution last month against the Centre’s waqf legislation.

What has given the row another dimension is the involvement of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, which has raised the “eviction threat” faced by Munambam residents from the waqf board, and even petitioned the Joint Committee of Parliament discussing the Waqf (Amendment) Bill over it.

For the past two weeks, local residents have been holding a protest under the banner of a ‘land protection committee’, with BJP leaders, including Union minister and the party’s first-ever Kerala MP, Suresh Gopi, dropping in.

Worried that the issue may give the BJP a boost, with Kerala headed for three bypolls, the Vijayan government has called a meeting. “The government is always with the people of Munambam. The issue, which is before the court, is very complex… People who have purchased the land have been staying there for long,” Law Minister P Rajeev said.

The Congress, which is part of the protests over the Centre’s Waqf (Amendment) Bill, has sought an all-party meeting to discuss the issue, while accusing the CPI(M) of indirectly helping the BJP. “A residential area cannot be made waqf land… The government should not have protracted the issue… thus letting communal forces capitalise on it. The waqf board should be asked to withdraw the case in the High Court,” Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan said, adding that government inaction was “meant to give space to the BJP’’.

The Congress and CPI(M) have been in a war of words in Kerala over the BJP’s slow and steady rise in Kerala, accusing each other of facilitating the same.

Congress ally IUML has also stepped in to try defuse the tension and held a meeting of various Muslim outfits in Kozhikode Saturday, after which its state president Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal issued a statement saying no one wants the residents of Munambam evicted. “They are not responsible for the present crisis. They need documents for their land. The government should have intervened timely, without leaving room for communal forces,” the IUML said, adding that Muslim organisations were ready to give their support to resolving the issue.

“There should be an out-of-court settlement,’’ Thangal said.

The BJP has urged the waqf board to abandon its claim on the Munambam land, in order to end the row. On Tuesday, addressing the media in Palakkad, one of the bypoll seats, BJP Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar said: “This is unheard of. Notices have been served to families for land where they have been living for generations.”

Demanding that the state government reveal details regarding waqf land in Kerala, Javadekar pointed out that the CPI(M) and Congress had “joined hands” to pass a resolution in the Assembly against the Centre’s waqf Bill.

The land

The Munambam land in question was taken on lease from the Travancore royal family by one Abdul Sathar Moosa Sait in the early 1900s. In 1948, his successor Mohammed Siddeeq Sait got the land registered in his name, and two years later, donated it to Kozhikode-based Farook College.

A large number of fishermen lived on this coastal land, with their families settled here for generations. Between 1987 and 1993, the Farook College management accepted money from these occupants and gave them title deeds. What complicated matters was the coming into effect of the waqf Act in 1995.

In 2008, the then CPI(M) government appointed a commission to look into the functioning of the Kerala State Waqf Board, and the transfer of waqf properties. The panel found Munambam land to be waqf property and recommended action accordingly. However, the Farook College management failed to register its land with the waqf board.

In 2019, the waqf board suo motu declared Munambam waqf property, and directed the Revenue Department to stop accepting land tax from the present owners.

In 2022, the state government intervened and directed the Revenue Department to continue collecting the land tax, overruling the directive of the waqf board. By paying land tax, the occupants have some claim to the plots and can pledge property for availing various loans.

The same year, petitions were filed in the High Court, challenging the government decision to accept land tax. The court, which is in the process of hearing a dozen appeals on the issue, from both sides, stayed the government decision.

One of the petitioners is Farook College, which has challenged the waqf board decision to declare its land as waqf property. A member of the college management, Prof A Kuttialikutty, said they will meet next week to take a final call on the issue. “It is not waqf property, but property gifted to the college management… which has sold the land to several occupants in the past,’’ he said.

Joseph Benny, convener of the ‘Munambam Land Protection Samithi’, said: “We have been living on the land for generations, but without documents. We had a legal battle with Farook College management for 30 years. Then, as per a compromise, we, the 604 occupants, paid money to the management and got the title deeds registered in our names from 1987 to 1993. How has such land become waqf property now?’’