Ministers and BJP leaders ask why the Congress is opposing the bill in Upper House after voting for it in Lok Sabha, allege it’s inimical to Muslim women.
In a bid to expose what it alleges is the hypocrisy of the Congress and give the party its second “Shah Bano moment”, the BJP is trying to ensure that the triple talaq bill goes to vote in the Rajya Sabha despite fierce opposition to it.
Senior leaders in the BJP say the ruling party would not flinch from its demand to put the bill to vote in the upper house. “The government’s strategy is to discuss and pass the bill in this session itself,” Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told ThePrint Wednesday.
Arguing that the time for referring the matter to a select committee has passed, Naqvi said that the Congress is repeating the same mistake it made in the 1980s by hijacking the rights of Muslim women.
“Why did they not oppose the bill in Lok Sabha? It is unfortunate that they have such double standards. They want to put the matter in cold storage by referring it to a select committee,” he said.
Congress ‘hypocrisy’
While the BJP has faced criticism for being opaque when it came to drafting the bill, its strategy would have an obvious advantage: creating another “Shah Bano moment” for the Congress. Even if the opposition does eventually vote in favour of the bill, the government believes it will be successful in cornering the Congress and portraying it is a party inimical to the interests of Muslim women and reform.
The Congress had courted controversy in 1986 for overturning a Supreme Court judgment, according to which a divorced Muslim woman, Shah Bano, was to be given alimony by her former husband.
According to the BJP, the Congress’s hypocrisy has, in fact, already been exposed. “The BJP wants a vote on the bill. Let the Congress be exposed. We had a majority in the Lok Sabha and Congress played along. Today, by deferring the passing of the bill, the Congress stands exposed,” said Vijay Goel, minister of state for parliamentary affairs.
Indicating that the Centre is not going to budge on its demand for voting, a senior BJP leader said: “We do not have much to lose. We are giving every opportunity to the Congress to show Muslim women that it cares for their rights. If the bill gets stuck, it would be because the opposition, including Congress put hurdles in our way.”
Reservations voiced
While Congress MPs had voted in favour of the bill in the Lok Sabha last week, the party has ratcheted up its reservations against the bill in the upper house, irking the government. Congress MP Anand Sharma Wednesday moved a notice demanding that the bill be referred to a select committee for further consideration.
A highly placed source in the government said it would not give into any pressure to “dilute” the bill.
However, despite an attempt at a Business Advisory Committee, back-channel talks with the opposition, and reading out rules to junk the opposition’s motion to send the bill to a select committee, a consensus could not be reached.
The strategy to put the bill to vote in the Rajya Sabha was decided Tuesday, and was communicated to BJP MPs at Wednesday’s parliamentary party meet. “We have been told that it will be put up for voting, and this will expose the opposition before the people. The objective is achieved,” said a senior BJP MP.