Triple talaq Bill: Rajya Sabha business halts amid Opposition demand for select committee referral

Ghulam Nabi Azad clarified the Congress was not against the spirit of the bill, but some provisions such as criminalising talaq-e-biddat, which it felt were “anti-women”.

The standoff over the the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which outlaws instant triple talaq, continued in Rajya Sabha Thursday as the Opposition demanded that before any other legislative business, the House first take up an amendment for referring the bill to a select committee. The previous day, Rajya Sabha had been forced to adjourn after Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad asked the chair to go for voting on the demand for a referral.

Derek O’Brien (Trinamool) and Naresh Agrawal (SP) urged deputy chairman P J Kurien to start Thursday’s legislative business from where the House had left off Wednesday. “I also want to point out that many of those who disrupted [Rajya Sabha] yesterday are not even members of this House and are here by virtue of being ministers,” said Agrawal.

A decision was put on hold for almost three hours, as both the government and the Opposition agreed to have a short-duration discussion on the state of the economy first. Once the discussion was over and it was time to take up legislative busines, Azad demanded voting on the amendment on select committee referra. He clarified the Congress was not against the spirit of the bill, but some provisions such as criminalising talaq-e-biddat, which it felt were “anti-women”. “Who will pay for the child’s education and house maintenance if the husband is in jail? There is no provision for that in the bill,” he said.

Leader of the House Arun Jaitley questioned on technical grounds the validity of the amendments moved by Anand Sharma (Congress) and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (Trinamool Congress). He objected to the fact that the motion to move the amendment was not placed a day before. Second, Jaitley said, the names of select committee members as proposed by the Opposition did not reflect the character of the House and were “one-sided”. Also, referring to some Opposition members who were vociferously opposed to passage of the bill without a review and who were also on the list of 17 names proposed for the select committee, he said the “saboteur” of a bill cannot be part of the select committee.

Kurien noted the amendment had been accepted by chairman Venkaiah Naidu. He said once a motion for an amendment under Rule 125 has been moved it becomes “a property of the House” and he cannot either withdraw the motion or amend it. He did not, however, agree to the Opposition’s demand to prioritise the amendment over the GST (Compensation to States) Amendment Bill, 2017, which was listed first on the day’s business. “I cannot take it up [triple talaq bill] unless the government agrees,” said Kurien.

O’Brien accused the government of not being serious about it own Bill. “It is clear that this side [Opposition] wants to empower women, and you stand exposed.” To this, minister Smriti Irani shouted back, “Absolutely not, if you seriously want to empower women then have a discussion now.”

As Kurien continued his attempt to take up the GST Bill, Trinamool MPs stood up and walked into the aisle, but did not enter the well and started shouting slogans. The deputy chairman then adjourned the House till Friday.