JOIN USVindicated by the Supreme Court judgement, the BJP looks set to reap political dividend by focusing on the government's role in the protection of women's rights.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the verdict and said it “grants equality to Muslim women and is a powerful measure for women empowerment".
Modi, in his Uttar Pradesh election campaign speeches, had forcibly articulated the cause of Muslim women, saying that the instant form of taking divorce was discriminatory and had also accused Opposition parties of indulging in vote bank politics by backing conservative sections among the minority community.
In the Modi government, the Law Commission had taken up the issue of triple talaq and bringing a Uniform Civil Code.
At the party's Bhubaneshwar conclave in April, Modi had urged party leaders to reach out to poor Muslims so that they can benefit from the government's move to constitutionally empower National Commission for Backward Classes.
BJP leaders said the NDA government's push in the apex court for personal liberty of Muslim women will help blunt to a certain extent perception that the party is entirely anti-Muslim. And in the long run, said a party general secretary, the BJP may wish to get more than 1% to 2% votes of Muslims it gets now.
BJP president Amit Shah thanked Modi for presenting Muslim women's viewpoint in the court "in a just manner".
Shah stressed that the verdict should not be seen as a "victory" or "defeat" of anyone, alluding that such an interpretation would create a divide among women and men in the Muslim community.
"We welcome the verdict. The Supreme Court has given a historic decision. This verdict has given the right to crores of women to live with equality and dignity," Shah stated.
A BJP leader argued that but for the NDA, other governments in the past have been hesitant to take a stand for bringing parity between personal laws and fundamental rights.
A similar attempt, the leader recalled, was made by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government which had amended the marriage and divorce laws of the Christian community to instil gender equality.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hoped the judgement will help rectify "aberrations in personal laws which infringe on constitutional guarantees".
When asked whether the verdict will give a fillip to the party's stand on a uniform civil code, a source said the two issues should not be hyphenated.
DH News Service