Weeks before Gujarat polls, NDA govt forms ministerial panel to frame law to put an end to the practice.
New Delhi: The Centre has set up a ministerial committee to consider a legislation to put an end to the practice of triple talaq.
The move is a clear departure from the BJP government’s earlier position that there was no need for such a law since the court had already ruled on the issue.
The move comes weeks before Gujarat votes in assembly elections the ruling BJP is heavily invested in.
BJP leaders have repeatedly said that the party benefitted from its anti-triple talaq stand in the UP elections earlier this year.
The ministerial committee has been formed to frame a law and the government intends to bring the legislation in the winter session of Parliament, government functionaries are reported to have said.
Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while hailing the Supreme Court judgment striking down triple talaq was reported to have ruled out the need for a law in August. “As of now, there is no need of introducing a new law. If the government sees the need in future, it will surely be done.”
Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi had echoed the sentiment saying there is no need for a law since the court has already ruled.
The party also cited the apex court verdict — the Supreme Court had struck down the practice of triple talaq on 22 August — as vindication of their stand against triple talaq.
“In Uttar Pradesh, the women who have been affected due to the practice of triple talaq, voted for the BJP in good numbers. The state has the highest number of victims of this practice,” Prasad had said.
In October, BJP leader Subramaniyan Swamy was reported to have said that Muslim women felt that only the BJP could save them from the ‘triple talaq’ problem.
However, Muslim women leading the fight against the practice said that the abolition of triple talaq is related to women’s struggle. “Triple talaq is not about the prime minister, political party or a government,” Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan had told ThePrint.
“If the Uttar Pradesh elections were won by parties supporting the abolition of triple talaq, why do political parties not heed to Muslim women’s demand for a law,” she had asked.
Soman, who has been galvanising support for a codified Muslim personal law for many years now, however, does not see the recent development through the political lens. “I don’t think Gujaratis would care about whether there is a law on triple talaq or not. The demographic profile of the state is not like UP or Bihar,” Soman, who is a Gujarati herself, said.
Bebaak Collective, another campaign group, in fact, recently released a statement condemning what they called the “appropriation of the women’s movement and Muslim women’s voices by the BJP government”.
“It appears that these stories before the Gujarat elections and assembly elections of 2019 will strengthen the image of the current government as a champion of women’s rights which will successively translate into winning election booths,” the statement read.
“We strongly resist this appropriation and unabashed manipulation of the Muslim community and especially the women,” it added.