The Bharatiya Janata Party celebrated the completion of the second term of its government at the Centre on May 30 and it recounted all its victories, including the passing of the Triple Talaq Bill, with a caricature.
तीन तलाक को हमेशा के लिए तलाक। #1YearOfModi2 pic.twitter.com/ZCL2Llg0Yl
— BJP (@BJP4India) May 31, 2020
However, this did not go down well with minority groups as the caricature was found to be in poor taste. In light of this, Athar Hussain, Director of the Centre for Objective Research and Development (CORD) issued a statement which said, “India’s ruling party cannot draw better depiction through caricature of Indian Muslims which they tweeted with a cartoon today, because this is what they believe ideologically. When this cartoon comes through the tweet of India’s ruling party’s official handle we have to realise that this is how the ruling party of the world’s largest democracy, that is India draws a caricature of Indian Muslims. This is a highly condemnable depiction through caricature by any standards of democracy and decency in politics, to depict fellow countrymen by the people who govern the country and have responsibility to not let sensibility of any fellow countrymen be hurt on the basis of what clothes they wear and what physical appearance they have.”
In his statement, Hussain also said that he was not against ending the triple talaq practice which he personally believed was not as per Quranic interpretation. However, he stated, “I condemn criminalisation of this and further demonising Islam as a religion through its public discourse only with the purpose of addressing to a particular party’s vote bank, this cartoon proves that. Through their action or dereliction it is known that they seem to be not at all concerned about the plight of Muslim women as such, their sole idea was to demonise the Muslim community as a whole. If their concern was genuine then so many incidents of hate against Muslim men who have mothers, daughters and wives would not have gone unpunished by the system which delivers justice.”
Concluding his statement, Hussain said, “I fail to comprehend the character and the compulsions of those who even after seeing this caricature will still believe that this govt. has commitment for the slogan “Sab ka saath,Sab ka vikas aur Sab ka Vishwaas.”
The Supreme Court had declared the ‘triple talaq’ practice which allowed a husband to divorce his wife by repeating the word ‘talaq’ (divorce) three times verbally or in a written form, including electronic means, unconstitutional in 2017. The Triple Talaq Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on July 30, 2019 and called for the practice of triple talaq to be criminalized, declaring it to be a cognizable, non-bailable office with an imprisonment of upto three years along with fine and allowing the accused to be arrested without a warrant. The Triple Talaq bill was challenged in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. In November 2019, a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana sought a response from the Centre on a plea submitted by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board challenging the law.
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Triple Talaq Bill: Shame on the personal law board