BJP’s master stroke on Triple Talaq

A silent majority of the minority community, among women, must have heaved a sigh of relief at the proclamation of Triple Talaq ordinance by the Central cabinet. The move might have been undertaken politically, with a view to garner a segment of the minority vote, but no one really questions the relief it provides to the oppressed women of the minority community.

There have been differences on the issue with a majority of the Muslim men opposing it questioning the intention of the Centre in going for it while some from the Opposition too joining hands with them in denouncing the government. Their sole argument against it is the criminality part of the Bill relating to it. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, popularly called as the Triple Talaq bill was passed by Lok Sabha and has been pending in Rajya Sabha since January this year due to opposition from Congress and its allies.

The criminalisation of talaaq-e-biddat or Triple Talaq leads to a political fall-out too apart from its social implications. This is an election year as everyone is aware of with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh going for polls later this year besides Telangana and Mizoram which are non-BJP ruled states. Then we have the Lok Sabha polls due the next year.

An argumentative country like ours is likely to get us embroiled in a huge controversy over this anyway with no one discussing the good of it. It is agreed that the Bill was stalled despite Sonia Gandhi leading the Opposition so far. It is all about vote bank politics and the Congress was no exemption to it. But gender considerations are never foremost in the minds of our rulers as we have experienced in the past.

For a country which treats its citizens as vote banks and not as voters and individuals, no doubt, rights and liberties matter very little. The Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, RJD and Samajwadi Party are dependent on the Muslim vote and cannot digest the fact that the BJP has outsmarted them all with this move.

They fear that a good chunk of the Muslim vote might move away from them and towards the BJP in the next elections. In addition the Congress has the problem with the Hindu vote too and is trying its best to project Rahul Gandhi as a 'jenue dhari Brahmin" and a Shiv Bhakt. It might even pack him off on a Char Dham yatra this year. Would they support it and risk earning the anger of Moulvis and Muslim men?

The fact that this form of Talaq is banned in 22 Muslim nations does not help the cause of the Opposition. The Centre has made amendments to the original Bill treating it as a cognisable offence only when a complaint is filed by the wife, a relative by blood or by marriage now, while making it a bailable offence. The Opposition fears the Ordinance would ruin families. Well, it has certainly ruined the Opposition's party.