Apropos Allah’s Left the Building (Sept 21), it’s good to see Outlook continuing to blaze a lonely trail with its investigations and exposures. That said, the wakf board scams are a brief diversion compared to our biggest land scandal, the special economic zones (sezs). The government is doling out all sorts of sops to ensure that these ‘princely estates’—some 600 of them now—can operate like small kingdoms. Except for flying their own flags and having their own ambassadors, they look to be autonomous in all other respects.
Devinder Sharma, Delhi
On the morrow of Independence, Nehru had abolished jagirdari and zamindari on the grounds that they were symbols of feudalism. The wakfs weren’t because Nehru wanted to create a votebank. As far back as 1894, the Privy Council in the Abul Fata case clearly characterised the wakfs as a perpetuity of the worst kind.
K.R. Phanda, Delhi
Religion does not come in the way of corruption, be it of any kind or of any scale. On the contrary, it’s now a shield to protect the corrupt.
Nasir Ehsan, Delhi
The historical angle is important here. It’s ‘Hindu land’ which was ‘donated’ to those of the faith by Muslim rulers. This fact can’t be overlooked.
Dr Vijaya Rajiva, Montreal
It’s surprising that there is no mechanism available to recover properties like the Ambani one, even though it was “grabbed” in full public view.
Ali Naqi Desnavi, Bhopal
It was ‘Hindu’ land to begin with. Ill-gotten wealth gets squandered in the end.
Asha, Delhi
India should learn from Pakistan how to deal with minority property rights. The latter solved this problem for its Hindu citizens a long time ago. The ‘scheme’ is ongoing for Christians there though.
A.N. Banerjee, Newcastle
K. Rahman Khan has been kind enough to give statistics about wakf properties. He could have spared a moment to talk about his involvement in gobbling up smaller wakf properties and controlling institutions through cronies in Bangalore.
Mohamed Suhail, Mysore
Outlook needs to be more alert to internal inconsistencies: 90,000 sq ft of land in Lalbagh, Bangalore, is worth Rs 90 crore but 45,000 square feet in Altamount Road, Mumbai—a far more expensive market—is worth just Rs 21 crore?
Nitin Kibe, Washington
The state wakf boards are loaded with trustees from the ruling parties. Rotten seeds don’t fall too far from the tree.
Jabir O.M., Thrissur
It would be more accurate to write waqf, rather than wakf. There are two ‘k’ sounds in Arabic, one light, the other heavy. The Hindi press has already ruined the pronunciation of two generations when it comes to Urdu/Persian words by relinquishing the dot. Read as it is spelt now, Ramzaan becomes Ramjaan (whereas the Arabic Ramadaan could have served just as well), Faiz becomes Faij, and, of course, Naqvi becomes Nakvi.
Rachna Singh, on e-mail
