West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the Waqf Act will not be implemented in West Bengal, amid growing unrest over the implementation of the Waqf Act, 2025.
Mamata also urged minority community members to stay united and resist political provocations, reports The Times of India.
At a “Navkar Mahamantra Divas” event in Kolkata, Mamata also pledged to defend minority populations and their belongings.
“I know that you are pained by the Waqf property issue, but have faith that there will be no divide and rule in Bengal,” Mamata said.
“Please remember, Didi will protect you and your property. You should give the message of live and let live. It is our duty to protect.”
The chief minister also criticized the BJP-led central government for allegedly pursuing a divisive agenda.
“The jumla party’s only point is to divide the country. First learn to respect the constitution, and then talk about taking away someone’s rights,” she said, rejecting the Waqf Act as part of a broader “divide and rule policy.”
Violent protests
Violent protests in Murshidabad, where protesters allegedly set a police car on fire, protests erupted shortly after the Act went into effect on Tuesday.
According to reports, the administration restricted internet access in the region to stop false information from spreading.
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya shared videos of the unrest—unverified by independent sources—and blamed Mamata’s “politics of Muslim appeasement” for the situation.
“The West Bengal Police is struggling to rein in the violent Islamist mob... possibly under instructions from Home Minister Mamata Banerjee herself,” he claimed in a post on X.
Meanwhile in Manipur, the Meitei Pangal community demonstrated against the recently modified Waqf Act in a number of valley districts on Tuesday, reports Scroll.in.
A subset of Muslims who belong to the greater Meitei community are known as Meitei Pangals.
The districts of Thoubal, Bishnupur, and Imphal East all had protest marches. According to the newspaper, the gathering in Kwakta town, Bishnupur, drew around 5,000 demonstrators.
Modi slams Congress
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday aggressively defended the amendments to the Waqf Act, asserting these were necessary to neutralize the changes made by the Congress-led UPA as part of “politics of appeasement”, which primarily served the interests of fundamentalists and land grabbers, and had also led to India’s Partition, reports The Times of India.
“The 2013 changes placed the interests of... land mafia above the Constitution and effectively shut out avenues for justice for their victims,” Modi said as he referred to the appropriation of plots belonging to govt, churches, temples, gurdwaras and farmers by declaring them waqf property.
The new law, which came into force on Tuesday, aims at rectifying these issues, he said.