KOZHIKODE: All eyes are on the government’s choice of the next chairman of the Kerala Waqf Board as the appointment is likely to have far-reaching political implications in the state. Incumbent T K Hamza has expressed his willingness to step down from the post citing poor health. He will resign before the Board meeting on Tuesday.
Hamza told reporters that he has consulted the CPM leadership and that it is the practice in the party that persons who cross 80 years of age steps down from all official posts. The CPM leader from Malappuram said he was given some extra years as he is currently 86. Hamza has dismissed the reports that he is not in good terms with the Minister for Waqf V Abdurahiman, who also hails from Malappuram.
The post of Waqf Board chairman is falling vacant at a time when the CPM is walking extra miles to get closer to the Muslim community. The party won some points when the Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulama, the largest Muslim organisation in Kerala, agreed to attend the seminar it organised on the proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC) on July 15, while the IUML stayed away from the event. Some dissident voices have started coming out of Samastha, which is the largest vote bank for the IUML, against the Sunni organisation’s alleged CPM leanings.
It remains to be seen whether the government will give the post to any Samastha leader as a ‘goodwill gesture’. It was Samastha president Syed Muhammad Jiffiri Muthukoya Thangal who poured cold water on the IUML’s plan to hold ‘awareness campaigns’ inside the mosques to protest the LDF government’s decision to leave the appointments to the Waqf Board to the Public Service Commission.
Concerns raised over trusting communists
If the government offers the post to Samastha and the organisation decides to accept, it will be interpreted as a quid pro quo deal. It will also give credence to the allegations raised by detractors that the Samastha leadership is hand in- glove with the CPM.
Samastha central mushawara (consultative body) member Dr Bahaudeen Muhammad Nadvi and IUML state secretary K M Shaji have raised concerns over trusting the Communists who are the “enemies of the Muslims”. It may be recalled that C Muhammad Faizi, the leader of the Kanthapuram faction of the Samastha, is currently the chairman of the Kerala Haj Committee, another important post for the Muslim community. Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait, Syed Umar Bafaqi Thangal and Syed Umar Ali Shihab Thangal were among the prominent figures who held the post of the Waqf Board chairman in the past.