Will scrap triple talaq bill if voted to power: Cong leader

› We oppose it because it is another weapon devised by Mr Modi to imprison Muslim men SUSHMITA DEV , Congress women’s wing chief

NEW DELHI: The Congress will scrap the triple talaq bill passed by the Narendra Modi-led government in the Lok Sabha if it is voted back to power in the Lok Sabha elections, the party’s women’s wing chief Sushmita Dev said on Thursday.

The current draft of the triple talaq bill has faced fierce resistance from opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha despite being passed by the Lok Sabha last year. The government was hoping to pass a long list of pending bills including the triple talaq bill, but it looks difficult, with the Congress hardening its stance.

When asked about Dev’s remark, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party had made its stand clear in the past. “Triple talaq does not have a place in this modern society. We have said that when you will send the husband to jail who will pay for the maintenance of the family. The society and the Parliament has to decide that. We want an amendment to include maintenance for the family,” he said.

Addressing a convention of the Congress’s minority department earlier, Dev said PM Narendra Modi pitted Muslim women against the men from the community by trying to bring the law. “We oppose it because it is another weapon devised by Mr Narendra Modi to imprison Muslim men or drag them to police stations,” she said at the event which was also attended by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

A fresh bill to ban the practice of triple talaq was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December last year to replace an ordinance promulgated in September. The ordinance was re-promulgated in January. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 superseded an earlier bill passed in the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha. The bill proposes a jail term of three years for the husband. On Thursday, the BJP called the Congress’s stance on the matter the “height of appeasement”. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra bit back, saying, “Neither Muslim women nor the Indian public will forgive them for such a regressive thought.”

The Supreme Court had banned triple talaq in August last year and asked the government to introduce a law to enforce the court ruling. The government issued an ordinance to ban the practice amid reports that Muslim men were men divorcing their wives over WhatsApp and other messaging platforms.