From Shah Bano to Shayara Bano: BJP says Congress missed the bus on triple talaq

The BJP on Friday revived the Shah Bano case of the eighties, linking it with the triple talaq issue as a preparation to celebrate one year of the passage of the law in a big way across the country.

“While the Muslim women in India are celebrating one year of freedom from an unjust and evil practice to triple talaq, these political parties have gone down ignominiously in the annals of history for standing against their right to equality and dignity,” tweeted BJP, slamming all the Opposition parties. It added: “History will not forget the political parties that opposed the bill to abolish triple talaq.”

BJP MP Varun Gandhi said: “Cases of this archaic and demeaning practice have significantly reduced across the country.” He shared the figures of cases in states like UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh before August 2019 and after that.

"The Congress had an absolute majority in Parliament with more than 400 out of 545 Lok Sabha members and more than 159 out of 245 members in the Rajya Sabha. But the Rajiv Gandhi government used its strength in Parliament to make the Supreme Court judgment ineffective and deprive Muslim women of their constitutional and fundamental rights," Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said addressing Muslim women from across the country via a video link at an event.

BJP leaders in last few days have increasingly targeted Congress, arguing that the law against the triple talaq could have been passed in 1986 when the Supreme Court had given the historic judgement in the Shah Bano case, which was turned aside through legislation by Rajiv Gandhi government.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani joined the campaign. Irani said vote bank was important for Congress than improving the lives of Muslim women. Prasad asked why it took India 70 years to bring a law against triple talaq. He called it the journey from Shah Bano to Shayara Bano, a triple talaq crusader from Uttarakhand, who later hailed the triple talaq bill as a measure that will ensure that women are treated as equal.

The triple talaq was passed on August 1 last year.

BJP has been countering the charge of meddling into private affairs Muslim community arguing how several Muslim-majority nations of the world like Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria and Malaysia have already declared triple talaq as un-Islamic.