The passage of the triple talaq bill in Parliament, with the contentious legislation crossing the Rajya Sabha hurdle on Tuesday, marks a significant political and ideological victory for the ruling BJP over forces that the party had dubbed as 'pseudo-secular' and which it has accused of practising appeasement politics.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill seeks to criminalise triple talaq and contains the provision of a jail term for the husband accused of pronouncing instant triple talaq divorce on his wife. The bill was pitched by the Narendra Modi government as the follow-up step to the Supreme Court banning the practice of triple talaq by holding it unconstitutional.
The BJP had turned the proposed law, projected as a measure meant to provide Muslim women justice, into an election promise, and the passage of the triple talaq bill in Parliament is the culmination of the ruling party's effort to turn a legal issue into a political masterstroke.
This was clear as Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was prompt in drawing a comparison between the Modi government succeeding in getting the triple talaq bill passed in Parliament with the Rajiv Gandhi regime bringing in a law to neutralise the Supreme Court's verdict in the Shah Bano case.
Prasad said there were laws against dowry and polygamy applicable to the Hindu community, with the offences attracting a jail term. And countering the reservations expressed by the Congress over the triple talaq legislation, Prasad said it was a Congress government that passed the Hindu Marriage Act in 1955, making bigamy punishable, and the Dowry Act in 1961. Prasad then asked why the Congress opposed the Shah Bano judgment in 1986. “Why is the Shah Bano model being followed in 2019?” he further asked.
The opposition, especially the Congress, has found itself in a fix over how to react to the triple talaq legislation. Wary of distancing the majority community over the impression that they have indulged in appeasement of Muslims, these opposition parties have had to do a balancing act. The opposition to the triple talaq legislation has been couched in technical issues, the main argument being that it brings under criminal law a matrimonial issue, which has otherwise been dealt with under civil law.
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If the opposition parties opposed the triple talaq bill, they would be branded as being anti-women, and, more importantly, be accused of indulging in Muslim appeasement. If they backed the law, the opposition would only end up playing into the hands of the government and taking forward the ruling party's ideological agenda.
Opposition leaders argue that the triple talaq bill is primarily aimed as a signal to the core constituency of the ruling dispensation that it is sincere about doing away with appeasement politics. These opposition leaders say that it is also meant to convey the BJP's commitment to bringing in a uniform civil code as the legislative step has implications for the personal laws of the Muslim community.
Thus, the landmark triple talaq legislation certainly has serious political implications.