PM Modi roots for triple talaq bill, slams Congress

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reaffirmed his government’s commitment to the triple talaq bill, which seeks to punish those who choose to practice instant oral divorce despite the Supreme Court outlawing the practice, as he launched a blistering attack on Congress for failing the minority community.
“Congress got two opportunities to empower Muslim women.It could have promulgated the Uniform Civil Code after Independence but it chose to pass the Hindu Code bills and left it at that. It got a second opportunity in the Shah Bano case but it chose to reverse the Supreme Court order which had upheld a Muslim woman’s right to alimony,” the PM said.
To buttress his criticism against Congress, Modi referred to an interview of Arif Mohammad Khan who, as a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government, had pressed for implementation of the SC order but failed to persuade his leader and his party. Modi, who did not mention Khan’s name, referred to the former minister’s account of how senior Congress leaders had sought to nudge him to drop his insistence for adherence to the SC verdict in the Shah Bano matter.
“Uplift of Muslims is not Congress’s responsibility, if they want to languish in the gutter, let them be,” some Congress leaders had told Khan. When contacted by TOI, Khan confirmed having made the statement in aTV interview. BJP’s Bihar ally JD(U), whose support can improve the prospect of passage of the legislation in Rajya Sabha, has arrayed itself against the legislation.
On Monday, the party’s leader in Lok Sabha Rajiv Ranjan Singh opposed the legislation pretty much on the same grounds as parties in the opposition. But Modi’s steadfastness on the triple talaq bill can cause complications for Congress, which does not want to be seen as actively opposed to the legislation for the fear of being accused of “appeasement”. The Prime Minister’s aggression suggests that it will have to muster all the deftness at its disposal to resist being painted into the same corner as Asaduddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the hardliners among the clergy.