Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the triple talaq law was for the social, financial and constitutional empowerment of Muslim women in the country. He said he is happy that the government could pass the long-pending bill in Parliament.
Said Naqvi to THE WEEK, "There is no hidden agenda here, nor are we trying to please any community, or Muslim women. It should not be looked at in that way. We don't practise appeasement politics. This is a glorious moment for every Indian. The day Parliament abolished triple talaq will be remembered for a long time to come."
On July 30, the Rajya Sabha passed the Triple Talaq Bill, with the government easily managing the number in favour of legislation. In the 240-member Rajya Sabha, 99 members voted in favour of the bill criminalising instant divorce by Muslim men, while 84 opposed it. Interestingly, 57 opposition members, including eight Congress MPs, stayed away or walked out while the voting was going on.
Triple talaq was not part of Islam, said Naqvi. "It was un-Islamic and illegal. We have corrected a mistake. For many years the headless Congress tried to prevent the bill from getting passed in Parliament. By opposing it only for political reasons they committed a big mistake. They were denying Muslim women their constitutional right. Many leaders in the Congress knew that this decision by the Congress leadership to block the passage of the bill was not correct. And, hence you had a situation when even some Congress MPs were absent in the house while the voting on triple talaq was going on," said Naqvi.
The bill, which will become a law once President Ram Nath Kovind signs it, will replace the ordinance on triple talaq put in place by the Union government on February 21. The opposition had blocked the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha in the Narendra Modi government's first term.
According to the new law, pronouncement of instant triple talaq by a Muslim husband, either in spoken or in written form, will be unlawful, with the husband liable to get a jail term of up to three years. The law also enables a Muslim woman to get the custody of her minor child in such cases.
The bill was brought up in a hurried manner, said E.T. Mohammed Basheer, MP, Indian Union Muslim League. "Muslim population in the country is around 13 per cent, of which their divorce rate is only one per cent. And not all Muslims go for triple talaq. So, this shows how negligible an issue triple talaq is. There are so many other problems that people in the country are facing. Women are being discriminated in other communities as well. This is selective targeting of the Muslim community," said Basheer to THE WEEK.
A.P. Abdullakutty, BJP leader, who was earlier with the Congress and the CPI(M), said Parliament passing the triple talaq bill was a welcome step. "More than 20 Islamic countries have already banned triple talaq. The demand for banning triple talaq came from Muslim women in the country. I agree that women across communities are facing discrimination. But there are already laws existing to punish people who do that. The BJP government at the Centre cares for the well being of everyone. Muslim women all over the country are happy that they can take legal recourse if they are divorced through triple talaq," said Abdullakutty to THE WEEK.
Abdullakutty was a CPI(M) MP from Kannur in Kerala twice. He was expelled from the party in 2009 after he praised the Gujarat model of development, when Modi was the chief minister there. Later, he joined the Congress, and was MLA from Kannur. Some months ago Abdullakutty joined the BJP, and said Modi was the messiah for poor Muslims in the country.