With the passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 in Parliament, an old but simmering land dispute in Kerala has re-entered public discourse—this time, with renewed national attention and political consequences. The case of 610 Christian fishing families in Cherai and Munambam, who have long alleged illegal land claims by the Waqf Board, is now being cited as a warning sign of unchecked institutional powers that the new legislation seeks to address.
In 2022, the residents of Cherai, a coastal Christian-dominated village in Ernakulam district, were jolted when the local revenue office suddenly declared their land as belonging to the Waqf Board. This was despite the fact that many families had been living on and paying taxes for the land for over a century.
The disputed land, villagers said, was originally purchased in 1902 by Siddique Sait and later donated to Feroke College in 1950. After a long-standing dispute, the Kerala High Court in 1975 ruled in favour of the college, following which villagers began purchasing plots legally from the institution starting in 1989. Yet decades later, a sudden revival of a dormant Waqf claim led to restrictions on sale, mortgage, and development—with many families facing the threat of eviction.
Back then, the issue sparked limited local outrage. But Christian organisations like the Syro-Malabar Church and the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) knew it was just the beginning.
Sensing a wider pattern of overreach, the Syro-Malabar Church and KCBC took the unusual step of approaching the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf Bill in 2023, months before the new legislation was introduced.
In a letter dated September 10, 2023, Archbishop Andrews Thazath, Chairman of the Syro-Malabar Public Affairs Commission, warned that hundreds of Christian families were “under the threat of losing their homes” due to Waqf Board claims over land they had owned for generations.
The KCBC President, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, also flagged the issue in Munambam Beach, where over 600 Christian families had suddenly lost access to revenue records, stalling basic development and credit access.
The churches’ submissions were made public by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, who shared their letters on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote: “The issue of Waqf land has been affecting people across communities. I feel pained to see eminent Christian leaders having to express their anguish in this manner.”
At the time, Rijiju expressed confidence that the Joint Parliamentary Committee would address the issue—but no immediate legislation followed.
Fast forward to 2024, and the Waqf (Amendment) Bill has finally passed—placing stricter checks on Waqf Boards and introducing a more transparent system to prevent arbitrary land claims. For the villagers of Cherai and Munambam, it feels like long-overdue recognition.
“This Bill proves that what we went through wasn’t an isolated incident,” says Marian D’Cruz, a local resident and community leader. “Back then, we were accused of exaggerating. Now the whole country sees why the law needed to change.”
The fallout has been political, too. Only yesterday, at least 50 Christians from the area formally joined the BJP, saying they had been betrayed by the Congress and Left parties, who opposed the Bill and ignored repeated appeals from Christian leadership.
Even prominent Congress leaders like Benny Peruvanthanam, former Idukki DCC General Secretary, resigned from the party, accusing it of a “pro-Muslim bias” and neglect of Christian concerns in the Munambam issue.
As the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 sparked heated discussions in Parliament, a conspicuous silence hung over the Lok Sabha—one that belonged to Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi. On April 2, even as the Waqf Bill was being debated, Gandhi took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), branding the proposed legislation as a “weapon” to “marginalise Muslims.” But, contrary to expectations from both allies and critics, he refrained from speaking a single word on the floor of the House.
When the Bill moved to the Rajya Sabha the following day, Congress President and Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, Mallikarjun Kharge, led the charge against the government. Yet, Rahul Gandhi remained absent from the debate, with no statement delivered in Parliament.
Adding to the silence, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra—whose seat lies in the heart of Kerala, where the issue of Waqf land has raised major concerns across both Muslim and Christian communities—was also absent during the crucial debate. Her nonappearance was also noted during the debate on the ratification of President’s Rule in Manipur, held in the early hours of Thursday morning. Rahul Gandhi, too, left Parliament soon after voting on the Waqf Bill, just around 2 am.
The absences drew sharp criticism even from within Congress’s own alliance. On April 4, Suprabhaatham, the Malayalam daily backed by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the influential Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, published a stinging editorial. It questioned Rahul’s silence and Priyanka’s no-show, calling the episode “a blot” on parliamentary conduct.
“The Waqf Bill is one of the biggest attacks on Muslims and the country’s secularism from the Sangh Parivar after the Babri incident… However, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi, whom the country looks up to with great expectations, did not come to Parliament despite the party whip. That will remain a blot. The question of where she was when the Bill was debated will remain forever. Also, the question of why Rahul Gandhi did not speak on the Bill, which shatters the unity of the country, will remain,’’ the editorial stated.
IUML is a key ally of the Congress in Kerala—raising the stakes for Rahul’s perceived indifference.
Defending Rahul, party leaders tried to downplay his silence, saying it should not be “politicised.” “Did Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak? Was he even in the House? Rahul was. The Congress party strongly opposed the Bill, and we voted against it in both the Houses. Rahul is a Congress leader and his stand is no different,” one senior leader said.
Still, with criticism coming from Muslim constituents and Congress’s own allies, questions are now being raised whether silence in Parliament—especially on issues with deep communal and legal implications—is a luxury any Leader of Opposition can afford.
For decades, the Congress and Left have dominated Christian votes in Kerala. But the Waqf issue has opened cracks in that support base. Christian newspapers like Deepika, which rarely criticise Congress directly, have recently condemned the party’s stance.
As the Waqf Board’s reach is reined in by the new law, many in Kerala’s Christian community see it not just as a legal correction, but as vindication—a moment where a marginalised voice was finally heard at the national level.
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