After Waqf, BJP will take away land of Christians, Hindu temples: Thackeray

The remarks were made after Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece, claimed that Catholic churches owned more land than the Waqf board in India

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday alleged that after making amendments to the Waqf Act, the BJP would now take away the lands of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindu temples and hand these over to their “friends”. The remarks were made after Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece, claimed that Catholic churches owned more land than the Waqf board in India.

Thackeray addressed the media on Sunday at the launch of ‘Shiv Sena Sanchar’, the party’s IT and communications wing (Hindustan Times)

Thackeray was speaking to the media on Sunday at the launch of ‘Shiv Sena Sanchar’, the party’s IT and communications wing. “Hindu temples have a lot of land,” he said. “Many feel that these temples are with the government. They (BJP) will take the land and hand it to their friends. They have no love for any community. Their love is for land. They first snatched land from Muslims, next, they will target Hindus.”

President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was passed by Parliament earlier this week. The government says the law will usher in reforms concerning Muslim religious endowments in the country, while the opposition and the Muslim community have been fiercely opposing it.

Thackeray said that the BJP created fights among religious communities, deliberately flared up communal violence, initiated police action and then used the bulldozer. “The BJP has used religion as a tool to poison people’s minds. This will prove costly for the country. We need to open people’s eyes,” said the former chief minister, claiming that Organiser had exposed the BJP’s agenda.

Organiser, in an April 3 article titled, ‘Who has more land in India? The Catholic Church vs Waqf Board Debate’, stated that for many years there was a common belief that the Waqf Board was the second largest landowner in the country after the government. However, it added, this claim did not align with the actual data, and it was the Catholic Church of India that had the distinction of being the largest non-governmental landowner in the country.

The article also said that the Catholic Church owned around 172.9 million acres (70 million hectares) of land throughout India. The article was pulled down by the website soon after Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, questioned its motive.

Other opposition leaders too attacked the BJP. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that “they” had realised they had nothing left to sell so now they wanted to sell Waqf land. “In future, all the Waqf land will go to the industrial friends of the BJP,” he said.

NCP (SP) leader Jitendra Awhad too alleged that the BJP was now eyeing land donated by the Christian community. “Christians have many land parcels all over India,” he said. “These lands are in the possession of the Church, and one has to admit that Christians have done unprecedented work in the medical and educational fields. Their educational institutions are spread across the country… The real guide of the mother organisation (RSS) and BJP is M S Golwalkar, and he has mentioned this in his book. It is an open secret that over time lands will be taken away from the Christians.”

The article assumes significance as it has come at a time when the Waqf Bill, passed by both Houses of Parliament, has triggered a fierce debate, added Awhad.