Modi govt using Triple Talaq as political football for 'fake credit seeking': Congress

The Congress on Wednesday alleged that the Narendra Modi government is using instant triple talaq as 'political football' to seek fake credits. The Congress's attack on the Modi government comes on a day when the Cabinet gave its nod to the ordinance to ban the practice of instant triple talaq. Under the proposed ordinance, giving instant triple talaq will be illegal and void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

Soon after the decision, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the Centre has been using the issue of instant triple talaq to garner votes. 

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP have become habitual offenders of using the issue of instant triple talaq as a political football for vote garnering rather than ensuring the welfare and subsistence of Muslim women. Even today, Modi Govt and Law Minister have indulged in mere vilification and blame game without releasing the proposed ordinance or listing out the solutions or concerns raised by Muslim women on the subsistence for themselves as also the children born out of the marriage," he alleged.

Surjewala also hit out at Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, calling him 'the master of Deception & Abuse'. "Subterfuge, Subversion, Suppression and Diversion of Truth has become the DNA of Modi government and BJP. The perpetually misleading Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has now become the master of ‘Deception and Abuse’ when it comes to hurling lies and allegations against the Congress party on every issue in an irrelevant and incoherent manner. An unnerved BJP finding itself cornered on the issue of repeated and gruesome rape incidents, as also issues of women security seeking to divert and reset the political agenda by hurriedly bringing an ordinance on instant triple talaq," he said.

He alleged that PM Modi and the BJP had earlier attempted to "fool people on a number of issues like Article 370, Uniform Civil Code, Armed Forces Special Powers Act etc."

He said that the Congress has also believed that triple talaq is about ‘gender justice’ and ‘gender equity’ and anything prejudicial to Muslim women is inherently unsustainable. "We were the first political party to state that in the modern day changing times, ‘Instant Triple Talaq’ is an unsustainable practice. We not only welcomed the Supreme Court judgement quashing the instant triple talaq as a victory for the rights of Muslim women but it was Congress leaders, who represented the women petitioners before the Supreme Court," he said.

He added that the main focus should be to ensure subsistence allowance and welfare and dignity of Muslim women and children and not on the 'fake credit seeking by Modi government'.

Claiming that the subsistence allowance has not been defined in the proposed legislation or in the Ordinance, he questioned the PM and the Law Minister over the same. "What is the definition of  'Subsistence Allowance' for Muslim women and children?; What is the method of calculating the ‘Subsistence Allowance’; How would the ‘Subsistence Allowance’ be quantified; Will the ‘Subsistence Allowance’ be in addition to ‘Maintenance’ granted to a Muslim woman under Section 3 & Section 4 of ‘The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986’ or will such ‘maintenance’ be deducted from ‘Subsistence Allowance’ or will a Muslim woman be entitled to only one of the two," he asked.

He also asked that why should the onus of proving instant triple talaq be on women as per the proposed Legislation or the proposed Ordinance.