Nishikant Dubey escalates controversy by targeting ex-CEC Quraishi over Waqf Act, labels him ‘Muslim commissioner’

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, already embroiled in controversy following his recent remarks against the Chief Justice of India, escalated tensions further on Sunday by launching a sharp attack on former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi. Dubey accused Quraishi of acting not as an impartial election commissioner but as a “Muslim commissioner,” responding to Quraishi’s strong condemnation of the Waqf (Amendment) Act. Quraishi had described the Act as a “sinister and evil plan” by the government aimed at seizing Muslim lands.

S Y Quraishi, who served as India’s Chief Election Commissioner from 2010 to 2012, had taken to social media platform X on April 17 to assert that the Waqf Act was a blatant attempt to appropriate Muslim properties. He expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would intervene to call out the government’s actions.

In retaliation, Dubey alleged that during Quraishi’s tenure, the highest number of Bangladeshi infiltrators were registered as voters in Santhal Pargana, a region in Jharkhand that includes Dubey’s own parliamentary constituency of Godda.

Dubey further asserted that the lands now governed under the Waqf Act originally belonged to Hindus, tribals, Jains, or Buddhists before the arrival of Islam in India in 712 CE. He invoked historical grievances, recalling the destruction of Vikramshila University by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1189, and highlighted the university’s significance by noting it produced the world’s “first vice chancellor,” Atish Dipankar.

In a broader appeal, Dubey urged for national unity and a collective understanding of history, warning against further division. He remarked, “Pakistan was created by dividing it. There will be no partition now,” signalling his opposition to any future fragmentation of India.

These remarks come shortly after the BJP publicly distanced itself from Dubey’s earlier vitriolic comments against the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, which had already stirred considerable political controversy.