M J Akbar mounts spirited defence of triple talaq bill

NEW DELHI: One-time Congress MP and now a BJP minister. And a Muslim to boot. M J Akbar lent spirited support for the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, which provoked fiery exchanges in Lok Sabha.
Akbar said Jawaharlal Nehru had cited the Hindu Code Bill as his biggest achievement but when asked if Muslim women did not deserve reforms, he remarked, "there was no opportune time". Rhetorically asking when that time would come, Akbar himself replied the time had come.

As he moved from Quranic verses to contemporary events, Akbar backed the bill and poked fun at Congress, even saying that all Indira Gandhi could do despite her undisputed leadership was to create All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

Pointing fingers at the opposition for the law to nullify the Shah Bano judgment, he said for a meagre maintenance of Rs 127, they had stoked an agitation across the country.

The argument drew angry protests from the opposition, as some said he was with the Congress then and mocked him for being a turncoat.

Akbar said those who opposed the Shah Bano order had raised slogans like "Islam is in danger and Shariat is being destroyed". "You used it to break the country before independence and you are using it now to break society," he said.

Questioning the argument that prescriptions in holy books could not be changed, he cited a verse saying that hands of thieves should be chopped off and asked why there was no such law now. AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi challenged him to bring the law.

Akbar said the proposed bill would wipe out fear from the minds of Muslim women and would start a new era of independence - saying husbands used the threat of divorce to subjugate them.

Replying to opposition questions, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Several women went to police stations seeking remedy after they were divorced by triple talaq recently. However, policemen regretted that they had no law to act."

He said complaints were received by the PMO and the home ministry that triple talaq was being practised even after it was declared null and void by the Supreme Court.

"We do not want to interfere in Shariat. This bill is on talaq-e-biddat. The issue is not of religion, faith, puja, the issue is of gender justice, equality and dignity."

The minister said the bill was framed by a group of ministers after several rounds of consultations so the opposition's allegation that it was being passed in a hurry was unfounded.