Opposition ‘deceit’ enabled Modi government to pass triple talaq bill, says Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Assaduddin Owaisi says Muslims have now realised they need to fight their own battles.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi speaks in the Lok Sabha | PTI

New Delhi: At work behind the BJP’s new found success in the Rajya Sabha, where it still does not enjoy the majority but has managed to pass a slew of controversial bills, is an interplay of deceit, collusion and the politics of entitlement of the Opposition, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Assaduddin Owaisi has said.

Speaking to ThePrint on a range of legislation passed by the two houses of Parliament in the ongoing session – including the Triple Talaq Bill, the RTI Amendment Bill, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, among others — Owaisi said it is not “rocket science” to understand that there is collusion between the government and the Opposition.

Calling the recently passed Triple Talaq bill as an “assault on Muslim women”, Owaisi said due to the actions of the Opposition parties, Muslims have finally learnt that they will have to fight their battles on their own.

“Seven MPs of the Congress don’t turn up, two important MPs of the NCP, a Congress ally, don’t turn up,” Owaisi said of the passage of the triple talaq bill last week. “Both PDP MPs don’t turn up as those of the BSP, a great voice of Muslims and protector of Muslims in UP, and the Samajwadi Party. Then they say ‘we didn’t know’ and come up with lame excuses such as ‘we were told that the Bills will go to the Standing Committee’.”

By contrast, he said, the BJP is “doing everything right”. 

“I would call it the politics of acupuncture. They know the right points to press,” he added. “While it is only expected for the ruling party with such a huge majority to aggressively pursue its agenda, it is for the Opposition parties to introspect.”

‘Government not interested in scrutiny of Bills’

Owaisi further said the arrogance of the BJP has prevented it from sending any bills for legislative scrutiny — a crucial aspect of law-making in Parliament. “When you have a huge majority of 300 plus, a month of scrutiny by the Standing Committee will not make the skies fall…But they see it as an affront (to their mandate),” he said.

“We’ve had a system wherein legislation or a bill is brought, it is scrutinised, and all the MPs in the Parliament rise above their party affiliation and give their opinion, but here the government feels, ‘no, the Supreme Leader has done something good, and that has to be accepted’,” he added.

While the Parliament rules stipulate that all MPs be informed of the introduction of a Bill two days in advance, it has become the usual practice in Parliament for the government to do so just two-four hours before a Bill is introduced — leaving no scope for Opposition MPs to research on them.

Yet, the Opposition needs to continue asking questions democratically and aggressively in order to ensure that history does not remember them as mute spectators when “dangerous” Bills like the UAPA and triple talaq were being passed with the government’s “brute majority,” he said.