Hyderabad: AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi raised concerns regarding the proposed appointment of non-Muslim members to the Waqf board, comparing it to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board, which exclusively comprises Hindus as its staff members. He questioned why the central Waqf Council could not have only Muslim members on religious grounds, similar to TTD’s mandate.
Owaisi drew a parallel between TTD, a temple body responsible for managing the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, and the Waqf Board. He stated, “TTD is a board of the Hindu religion, and the Waqf Board is for the Muslim religion. There should be parity… When the trustees of TTD cannot be Muslims, how will a non-Muslim member be on the Waqf Board?”
He highlighted that not a single member of the 24 members of the TTD Board is a non-Hindu, emphasizing that the new Chairman of TTD has insisted that the people working there should be Hindu. Owaisi expressed his objection to the Modi government’s proposed bill for the Waqf, which mandates that two non-Muslim members should be included in the central Waqf Council. He questioned the rationale behind this provision in the Waqf bill.
The remarks from the Hyderabad MP followed TTD’s newly-appointed chairman BR Naidu’s announcement regarding the appointment of only Hindu members to the 24-member board. Naidu stated that everyone who works at Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, should be Hindu. He also mentioned that there have been many issues regarding the sanctity of the temple that need to be addressed, particularly in light of recent allegations of adulteration in its ‘prasadam’.
