BJP's Shah Bano moment

The Modi government is unflinching in its resolve to seek a review of triple talaq even as it tries to delink it from the uniform civil code (UCC) saying it was purely an issue of gender justice.

Around three decades after the Congress cowed down before political considerations in Shah Bano’s alimony case, the Modi regime is determined to pursue its stand on triple talaq in the affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court, amidst stiff resistance from Muslim clergy.

“This is a well thought out and considered view of the government in pursuit of equality and dignity of women,” Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told DNA. He said that at the core of the government affidavit – submitted before the court last week – were gender justice, non-discrimination and dignity of women. Sources said that the Centre is going to employ a 1952 Bombay High Court judgment as part of the argument, which held that if any personal law is in clear contravention of individual freedom then it is not tenable. 

The affidavit had followed a nod from the Prime Minister’s Office and inter-ministerial meetings, as Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry did not want to tread on such a sensitive issue by itself, sources in the ministry said. She sought the intervention of the PMO after which meetings were held with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Prasad earlier this month, sources said.

Prasad said triple talaq was not in line with India’s constitutional philosophy, which guaranteed under Articles 14, 15 and 21 the rights to equality, no discrimination on ground of gender and right to live with dignity. “In a secular country like India, do we have to allow a big section of its women to be in a vulnerable situation only because a particular community holds on to some discriminatory practice that cannot be held integral to faith,” he asked.

Pointing out that several Islamic countries in the world have regulated their matrimonial laws, he said: “They have made provision for arbitration and conciliation. In some countries, only court decides in such matter. You simply cannot say talaq, talaq, talaq. We have taken a position that if Islamic countries can regulate matrimonial laws – which have not been found violative of the Sharia – how can the same argument be raised in a secular country like India.”

Prasad said countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, Iran and even Pakistan have regulated their laws much earlier. “Agar wahan ho sakta hai to Bharat mein kyon nahi (“If it can happen there, why not it in India),” he asked.

Prasad also appealed to the All India Muslim Personal Board (AIMPB) to reconsider its decision to boycott the law commission’s questionnaire and participate in the exercise.

A BJP leader said that while uniform civil code, a core agenda of the party, was a larger issue involving not just Muslims, triple talaq was intertwined with it. Though the government affidavit was given in the wake of Muslim women approaching the Supreme Court against triple talaq, it was moving in the direction of the promises made by the party. While sources said the government was not looking at it with eye on votes, the stand taken by it was in line with the expectations of the BJP’s constituency, party sources said.

The Pam Rajput Committee on Status of Women in India, in its report to the WCD ministry in 2014, held that personal laws discriminatory to women must be amended. This included the recommendations to abolish triple talaq under Muslim law, the idea of illegitimate children under Hindu Marriage Act, and the mandatory two-year separation as a ground for divorce as mandated by the Christian law.

WCD sources said the government will take up changes in the other personal laws in “due course of time”. “The issue of triple talaq was in court when we were roped in. As in when things develop, we will deal with the Christian law and the Hindu Marriage Act, too,” said the official.

Modi had pitched the government’s line on gender justice at Lucknow on Dussehra when he devoted nearly ten minutes of his speech to girl child. “We burn effigies of Ravan, who took away Goddess Sita, every year and the tradition will continue. We should also protect the Sita of our home by stop discriminating between a girl and a boy. How many Sitas we kill in the womb?…We should celebrate more when a girl child is born,” he had said.