KANNUR: Faced with mounting criticism from within and outside, the Cannanore District Muslim Educational Association, under the control of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership, has reversed its earlier stand that Sir Syed College is not situated on waqf land.
IUML realised that the CPM is trying to utilise the issue politically and there were rumblings in the party over stating that the land is not waqf property. The management committee had stated before the High Court that the land leased out from the Taliparamba Jamaat Mosque Trust Committee for the college actually belonged to Narikottu Ettishery Illam and therefore it is not a waqf property. The Waqf Protection Committee had alleged that the submission of such documents in court amounts to a deliberate move to seize waqf property.
CPM had accused the IUML of taking a double standard on the waqf issue. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that the land issue has exposed the double standard of the IUML. The Waqf Protection Committee had organised a march protesting against the college committee’s stand.
CPM used the opportunity to push the IUML on the back foot in its stronghold. CPM state secretariat member M V Jayarajan had alleged that League leaders are attempting to seize waqf property using forged documents and are conducting commercial ventures under the pretext of managing a religious Trust.
Some IUML sympathisers had even approached party president Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal and national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty seeking their intervention.
IUML Kannur district leaders now say that there were some clerical mistakes in the petition submitted in the High Court. “The controversy is over a clerical error on the part of lawyers in a lawsuit regarding the change of the ‘thandaper’ of the Taliparamba Sir Syed College land. However, CDMEA, which owns the college, has taken an executive decision to correct this mistake and has instructed the lawyers concerned,” said IUML Kannur district president Abdul Kareem Cheleri.