Ruling front and Opposition seek to undermine BJP’s dalliance with Church leadership over Munambam

The ruling front and the Opposition have sought to undermine the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) dalliance with the Church leadership by spotlighting Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju’s statement that the Waqf Act 2025 offered no sure-fire solution to the predominantly Christian residents of Munambam locked in a vexatious property ownership dispute with the Kerala Waqf Board.

Both fronts stated that Mr. Rijiju had “let slip” the BJP’s “strategy to divide the sizeable and largely anti-Sangh Parivar minority communities in Kerala” by “falsely connecting” the emotive Munambam land dispute to the passage of the contentious Waqf Act.

Both fronts sought to expose the BJP’s courtship of Munambam residents and the Church as treacherously Machiavellian.

Traded blame

At the same time, the opposing fronts traded blame for allowing the issue to fester to gain the upper hand in Kerala’s revolving-door coalition politics ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls by giving space to the BJP as an electorally disruptive force.

Nevertheless, both fronts agreed that the BJP’s bid to “divide minorities” over the Munambam issue had stretched the State’s secular fabric thin and required a firm social and political counter.

On the eve of a massive anti-Waqf Act rally in Kozhikode on Wednesday, P.K. Kunhalikutty, MLA, and national general secretary of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) stated that Mr. Rijiju had given the BJP’s “divisive” game away by revealing that the controversial law was no panacea for the Munambam residents’ legal woes, but only a “tenuous” leg-up for their legal fight for revenue rights.

Legal challenge

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the LDF government had allowed the BJP to fish in muddied waters by not brokering a harmonious settlement between Munambam residents and the Farooq College management before the Kerala Waqf Tribunal ahead of the Centre passing the Waqf Act, which rendered the Waqf Board and the Waqf Tribunal decisions subject to legal challenge and judicial review.

Law Minister P. Rajeeve said the IUML-controlled Waqf Board could have settled the dispute by giving up its claim over Munambam land. “It could have provided other land as Waqf in lieu of the property claimed by Munambam residents,” he said.

Mr. Rajeeve said those entities applauding the Waqf Act and writing articles to browbeat MPs to vote for the law should see the BJP’s Janus-faced nature. He added that the Sangh Parivar would target properties owned by other minorities.