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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: May 07, 2016, 08:10 AM IST
The Centre has finally come to the aid of Christians seeking divorce by agreeing to amend the Divorce Act. The amendment will reduce the separation period by half for couples seeking mutual consent divorce. This was one area that has been neglected for pretty long despite a section of the community clamouring for a reduced term and the Supreme Court ruling in favour of it. While the separation period for Hindus, Parsis and those availing of the Special Marriage Act has been one year, for Christians the waiting period was exactly the double. This discrepancy had prompted the SC to ask the government why Christians should be subjected to a longer term. But, it was left to the government to amend the existing law. The law minister DV Sadanah Gowda, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, stated that the government has plans to amend Section 10A of the 1869 law. This would bring immense relief to Christian couples trapped in unhappy marriages. However, the same government is pussyfooting around Muslim Personal Laws which are heavily stacked against women, especially with its triple talaq clause. If it cannot establish a Uniform Civil Code because of lack of consensus, it should at least try to establish a framework safeguarding the rights of Muslim women.
The Sheikh Hasina government has shown exemplary courage by cracking down on the perpetrators of war crimes during the 1971 Liberation war. The latest to face the gallows is the Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami whose execution is a matter of time now that his mercy petition has been rejected by the Bangladesh Supreme Court. Nizami has been convicted on several counts — murder, rape and engineering the massacre of the country’s intellectuals. Nizami and his ilk had stood behind the Pakistani army while it went on a rampage butchering thousands of activists and civilians. But Nizami’s death sentence is likely to evoke violent protests within the country. This is largely due to an increasing radicalisation of a certain section of people who are inspired by an extreme form of militant Islam. The hacking of secular bloggers, who espoused rational thinking and a liberal outlook of Islam, is an ominous trend. Bangladesh has also become a hotbed of ISIS activities. There are reasons to believe that Nizami has been accorded a fair trial and that he was not a victim of a vindictive judicial process. No amount of threat should now dissuade the Bangladeshi government from carrying out the sentence.
A migrant labourer from Assam who had come to Kerala in search of livelihood was tied up and left to die in the scorching sun. Moments before his death he had tried to break free but nobody came to his rescue. There were 50 people around watching the spectacle of his death, but not one man felt the need to untie him, take him to a shade and offer him water. This is how our society has evolved in the recent times, where such acts of violence have become commonplace. Kailash Jyoti Borah was a harmless soul. His erratic behaviour, which aroused suspicion, was attributed to withdrawal symptoms — the 29-year-old man was an alcoholic and the long train journey from Assam to Kerala had made him restless. Even then there was no logic of tying his hands and legs. The perpetrators behind his murder must be brought to justice. Vigilante justice is now a growing trend and needs to be tackled urgently.
