The contentious issue of the triple talaq bill is likely to kick up a storm in the upcoming budget session of the Parliament.
The BJP government wanted to script history by passing the triple talaq bill in the last winter session, but failed to do so. The bill it had brought in the Parliament, though progressive, hit a roadblock in the upper house where the government is short of numbers to see a legislation through.
The bill, introduced as The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, makes instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat a criminal offense and proposes jail term for the culprit.
Given that the BJP government has a record of handling and seeing safe passage of complex bills like the Goods and Services Tax or GST, this bill, with a pro-women welfare component, should have been child’s play.
Had Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not activated back channels and reached out to an adamant opposition when the GST bill was on the anvil, its fate may have been similar to the triple talaq bill. But Jaitley reached out to whoever he needed to get on board and ensured that the GST bill got a smooth passage. He built a consensus and gave India its biggest tax reform.
The challenge in the triple talaq bill was much lesser. It was a social reform no party could afford to easily oppose. Therefore, even while stalling the bill, the opposition parties, led by the Congress, kept making the point of their support to the welfare of Muslim women and the need to end the practice of instant divorce. That was more than half the battle won. The other half were mere technicalities that a spirit of give and take could, perhaps, have, resolved. It needed deft handling and winning over the opposition, with or without the Congress. As things panned out, the government failed to get its own allies to back the bill. There was clearly an absence of a reach-out and it seemed that enough work did not go in building a consensus.
The government also misread the events that unfolded in the Lok Sabha. It mistook strategy for support and was confident that the upper house would “create history”. However, the bill wasn't passed and even while the BJP scored a political point of “exposing the Congress” it did so at the cost of sacrificing a legislation that could have positively impacted the fate of hundreds of Muslim women who are victims of triple talaq.
That there are flaws in the bill are a given. There is a genuine fear of misuse of the provision against Muslim men who have a pathological dislike for the BJP. Even while the opposition is clamoring for toning down the criminal clause, the government is hell-bent on pushing it through.
More importantly, the police interference in the event of an instant divorce needs to be minimised. As of now, the police can arrest the man on a complaint without the Muslim woman having to move court. This closes all options of reconciliation and robs the bill of a necessary component that would offer possibilities of saving the marriage. The law, when enacted, should act as a deterrent but not police the marriage, as it were.
Besides, if the woman is given the power to compound the offense, rather than the police, it would be like a sword dangling over the errant husband’s head without actually killing him. Were this to happen, then men would be where Muslim women are today—under threat. As of now, it is the woman who is at the mercy of her husband and lives in fear of when he would exercise his absolute right of pronouncing the 'T' word thrice. With the proposed law, if and when it comes into effect, the roles would be reversed. Then it is the husband who would run for cover.
This notwithstanding, one cannot miss the politics that is playing out through this bill. The non-BJP segments have the Muslim vote to worry about and they would do whatever it takes to keep the vote bank that intact. The punitive clause is counter productive and threatens to erode the electoral vote base which explains the clamour for going soft on the jail term.
Turn the clock back some thirty years and the ghost of Shah Bano looms large. Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister, had backtracked on a progressive legislation under pressure from the Muslim fundamentalists. The court had granted Shah Bano a maintenance allowance and upheld her right to alimony—seen by many as an interference in Muslim personal law. The Rajiv Gandhi government overturned the verdict through the Muslim Women (Protection on Divorce Act) 1986 and restricted the maintenance period to 90 days after divorce i.e. during the period of iddat.
On its part, the BJP does not have to worry about the Muslim vote because it has none. Therefore, it can afford to take risks or play antics that the others cannot. The triple talaq bill is a gamble that is aimed at winning over Muslim women and accruing electoral gains through a gender divide. Today Muslim women are rooting for the BJP because it sees it as the only party that has moved in to do something for their welfare. This has touched a cord and Muslim women are no longer averse to the party. Therefore at one level, the BJP stands to gain having amply demonstrated that it stands behind Muslim women. If it is politics alone, it can stop at intent without worrying about the future.
The Congress-led UPA had done something similar with the 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislative bodies that saw a safe passage in Rajya Sabha but hit a roadblock in the Lok Sabha. Seven years on and the bill is languishing but the Congress government was able to establish that its heart beats for women empowerment.
It is this tokenism that the BJP needs to avoid. Having scored a political goal it needs to shift focus from intent to actual delivery and see this bill through. It will need to adjust rather than confront. Taking a leaf out of the GST book, it would do well to display an accommodative spirit rather than a you versus us. Asserting that the government will not bow down will only vitiate the atmosphere and reduce the entire exercise to a battle half fought and half won and a cacophony of we did, they didn’t.
More importantly, it would kill a legislation that promises to resurrect Muslim women and empower them against the tyranny of the men and fundamentalists. Therefore, instead of scoring political points, the government must concentrate of seeing this bill turn into a piece of legislation and be honest enough to remove its flaws without compromising on the core of the bill. Otherwise mere sloganeering and painting the opposition blank would be missing the wood for the trees.
(Kumkum Chadha is a veteran journalist)
