Centre responds to Mamata Banerjee’s ‘won’t implement Waqf law in Bengal’ remark

As protests raged in West Bengal over the Waqf Amendment Act, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the controversial law would not be implemented in the state.

However, her remarks drew criticism from Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal who dubbed her statement as “not right”.

Meghwal said Banerjee had made similar statements during the rollout of the Citizenship Amendment Act, but the CAA was implemented in West Bengal.

"She made a similar statement during CAA. But CAA was implemented in Bengal. It is a law enacted by Parliament which is implemented pan-India. If there is a difficulty during its implementation, suggestions can be made during framing of rules," he said.

Meghwal was speaking at an event organised by the law ministry on the 135th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar.

The West Bengal chief minister vowed not to implement the amended Waqf Act in West Bengal as protests turned violent in Murshidabad district, resulting in the death of three people.

Banerjee took to social media and urged people to maintain calm and not fall prey to provocation.

"My sincere appeal to people of all religions, please remain calm, remain restrained. Do not engage in any irreligious behaviour in the name of religion. Every human life is precious; do not incite riots for the sake of politics. Those who are inciting riots are harming society," she said.

"We have made our position clear on this matter -- we do not support this law. This law will not be implemented in our state. So what is the riot about," she further said in her post on X.