Breaking her silence over the contentious issue, the Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Tuesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks on triple talaq, saying it was “not proper” for him to “force his opinion or decision” on the followers of any religion.
Ms. Mayawati advised the PM to leave the issue of triple talaq to be resolved by the Muslim community through consensus.
She accused the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of trying to rake up the contentious issues of triple talaq and Uniform Civil Code in line with the agenda of the RSS, right ahead of upcoming Assembly elections in various states, including the all-crucial Uttar Pradesh.
“Rather than interfering in the triple talaq issue, it would be better if the Modi government let the Muslim society draw its own consensus on the issue,” the former U.P. Chief Minister said.
It was “not proper” for the Prime Minister to force his “opinion or decision” on the followers of any community based on the agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Ms. Mayawati said, advising Mr. Modi to not meddle with the Shariat. “It is improper, highly condemnable and not least bit in the national interest.”
Ms. Mayawati had so far maintained a studied silence on the contentious question of triple talaq. She chose to break her silence a day after Mr. Modi spoke out on the issue for the first time.
‘Fundamentalist stance’
The Modi government, she said, was trying hard to enforce the “parochial, fundamentalist and communal agenda” of the RSS on the people by some means of the other. Targeting the Modi government over its stance against Muslims, she pointed out the atrocities committed against the community under his tenure since 2014. She linked them to the atrocities suffered by Dalits, her core constituency. Muslims were murdered and an attempt was made to “terrorise” them under the name of gau raksha, she said, adding that the same gau rakshaks later made Dalits their victims.
Trying to forge solidarity between the two communities, which form 40 per cent of the electorate in U.P., Ms. Mayawati said the incidents in Una, Banaskantha, Mewat, Dadri and Jharkhand were examples this trend. She also criticised the NDA for ending the minority status of the Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University.
Mr. Modi on Monday spoke out against triple talaq, arguing that in the 21st century the “lives of Muslim women cannot be allowed to be ruined” by the contentious custom. He appealed to the media to not give the debate a “Hindu-Muslim” colour, while calling for an informed discussion on the subject with experts and intellectuals from the Muslim community.
