The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
‘Modi champion of politicising triple talaq’
HOURS AFTER Prime Minister Narendra Modi broached the issue of triple talaq and urged Muslims not to view the issue from a political perspective, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said Modi has been the “biggest champion of politicising” the issue. He also asked the BJP not to try and create a new vote bank by driving a wedge between Muslim women and their husbands.
“The Prime Minister has said that the issue should not be politicised. I want to ask the Prime Minister, who is politicising it? He is the biggest champion of politicising it,” the Congress leader said on Saturday. “He started it, and to (now) say ‘don’t politicise it’ itself is politicising it .... Have you ever heard any leader of AIADMK, DMK, BJD, JD(U), Samajwadi Party, BSP, Congress or the TMC talking about it?”
Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said Modi is aiming at something else while talking about the triple talaq issue.
Azad said, “Give me the name of one political leader of any political party who initiated the discussion .... (But) leaders of the BJP - right from the Prime Minister, and those of the RSS, from worker to pracharak - run this agenda (all the time), both before and after elections. Other parties have been talking in response to that; suo motu no political party has talked about it.”
He said, “Instead of advising others, the PM should restrain himself and control his party.”
As time evolves, all people — whether Hindus, Muslims or Christians — keep the good aspects of their religion and features that are not appropriate get phased out, Azad said. In Islam too, he added, aspects associated with the Quran will remain, while those “made by the maulvis or mullahs will not”.
He said, “When the society is already discussing it, and the matter is pending before the court, BJP ko khamakhan main Muslim aurat aur Muslim pati ke beech main ye naya vote bank banane ki koshish nahin karni chahiye (BJP should not unnecessarily raise this topic to create division between Muslim women and their husbands to create a new vote bank).”