Triple talaq: Politics rules, justice denied

As with many issues that come wrapped in controversy, the origin of the dispute is relegated to the margins, and politics takes over. This is what happened in a bundle of cases on Muslim divorce effected through the instantaneous utterance of the word “talaq” thrice that have come up before the Supreme Court. There are at least three cases being mentioned in media reports. The first is of Shayara Bano from Uttarakand, the other by Ishrat Jahan from Uttar Pradesh, where their respective husbands used the “triple talaq” mode to effect immediate divorce, with drastic consequences, financial and social, for the wives. They were even barred from seeing their children. There is a third petition by Farah Faiz, a lawyer fighting the divorce cases of women from poor homes who had filed a Supreme Court petition questioning the triple talaq and the locus standi of the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) in setting themselves up as arbiters. The court, meanwhile, asked the Centre to state its viewpoint, which it did in an affidavit opposing the “triple talaq” practice as being un-Islamic.

What, however, dominates public debate is the suspected intentions of the BJP-NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that is perceived as hostile to religious minorities, including Muslims. This perception was strengthened by the fact that hoodlums from outfits flaunting themselves as protectors of the cow, the cultural and religious symbol of traditional Hinduism, have been initimidating and assaulting Muslims. There were a few incidents reported extensively in the media: the first from Dadri, on Delhi’s outskirts, in Uttar Pradesh, where a Muslim villager was killed on suspicion of eating beef; a second from Mewat in Haryana, that was under social vigil during Id-ul-Fitr for possible use of beef in biryani.

Going by the public jousting over the issue, it appears the two main contestants are the Narendra Modi government and the AIMPLB, and that there is an attack on the personal laws of Muslims. All Muslim organisations, most of them conservative like the Jamiat-ul Islam-e-Hind, that is also a member of AIMPLB, feel all Muslims should join hands to resist the government’s move to try tamper with the community’s personal laws. They object to the Centre’s affidavit opposing triple talaq.

The Modi government, however, can’t be faulted on the triple talaq issue as it is not the original disputant, and it hadn’t even impleaded itself in the matter. It is the court that sought the government’s views. But through mere coincidence or possibly sheer mischief, the government asked the Law Commission to elicit public opinion about the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), which is part of the non-justiciable Directive Principles of the Constitution.

The UCC is also part of the BJP’s core agenda along with Article 370 and the Ram Mandir issue, though the party is keeping tacitical silence on them. But it seems it wants to push its agenda on UCC. This raised the hackles of the community’s leaders as represented in the AIMPLB.

Most among the liberal Muslim middle class, whose existence is usually ignored by political parties and the media on the assumption that they don’t represent the majority of nearly 200 million Muslims in India, oppose triple talaq and many other degenerate social practices that have become part of the community’s life and which have nothing to do with religion. But they find themselves in a tight spot due to the Modi government’s passive stance towards the party’s hotheads and goons on the prowl, intimidating Muslims in many parts of the country, particularly in the north.

Even some AIMPLB members accept that triple talaq is an odious practice and it is not endorsed by their religion. But they don’t want the State, as represented by the courts and the government, to take the matter into their hands. They argue the community should sort out the issue. In their loud protestations against the State’s bid to have a say in community issues, they give the impression that they support triple talaq. But their stand on instant talaq is so subdued that it seems they are supporting it.

It is also a fact that they don’t see the directive to the Law Commission to explore views on UCC as separate from the government’s affidavit on the triple talaq matter. The government’s protestations that these are two separate issues fall on deaf ears. The fault really lies with the Modi government as it has not been able to convince people that it doesn’t subscribe to a fanatical nationalist ideology that has no place for differences and diversity. It is really an image problem.

As a consequence, the debate on triple talaq and UCC has become the veritable clash between Hindutva, the BJP’s unstated ideology, and, ironically, the defence of secular ideals by the reactionary sections of the Muslim community.

It is possible that the triple talaq cases pending before the Supreme Court could be disposed of without jettisoning personal laws. Triple talaq is an unfair and unjust practice, both in terms of Islamic jurisprudence as well as civil law. The Supreme Court can deliver justice to Shayara Bano, Ishrat Jahan and scores of other hapless Muslim women without any reference to UCC. Triple talaq can be shown to be untenable according to the Shariat itself.

What seems to come in the way of resolving a strictly legal matter is the politics surrounding it. The BJP is showing mischievous fervour in the matter, and certain blinkered Muslims are digging their feet on an issue which does more harm to Muslims than to anyone else.

The author is a Delhi-based commentator and analyst