Naik, booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) linked to terror charges, posted a misleading video about the Waqf bill, which has been sent to the Joint Parliament Committee for a comprehensive discussion.
“If this bill (Waqf bill) passes, thousands of Mosques, madrasas and graveyards and lakhs of acres of land will be taken from Muslims,” Naik said.
Cautioning people against Naik’s video, the Union minister said: “This anti-India character is spewing venoms by spreading false and fake propaganda & also trying to create communal disturbances in India. We need to unitedly fight against such people.”
This is, however, not the first time when Rijiju has rebuked fugitive Naik.
A few days ago, he tore into the controversial Islamic preacher for peddling false “propaganda” on the Wafq bill.
Taking strong exception to Naik’s call to reject the bill, the Union minister sternly warned against “misleading” the Indian Muslims from abroad.
The scathing rebuttal by the Union minister came on the back of a controversial social media post by Naik, where he called on Indian Muslims to “save Indian Waqf properties, reject the Waqf Amendment Bill.”
“Please do not mislead the innocent Muslims from outside our country. India is a democratic country and people have the right to their own opinion,” Rijiju wrote.
“False propaganda will lead to wrong narratives,” the Union minister said.
The Waqf Amendment Bill, introduced to reform the management of Waqf properties, faced opposition from certain quarters of both the opposition and coalition partners during the recent parliamentary session.
As a result, it was sent for broader consultation. Since then, the bill has been reviewed by the Joint Parliamentary Committee.
The committee’s chairman, Jagdambika Pal has stressed that they are actively discussing ideas and recommendations to draft a bill that will benefit the poor, women, children, and the minority community as a whole.