by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
There was never any doubt about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) anti-minority electoral gambits but the agenda has now been unambigiously and forcefully articulated by the party’s friend, philosopher and guide, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Delivering the organisation’s customary message on the occasion of Dussehra/Vijay Dashami, its chief, Mohan Bhagwat, has left no stone unturned about what the Narendra Modi government should immediately do — which is to start building the Ram temple in Ayodhya even by enacting an ordinance.
By pointedly ignoring the fact that the issue is currently before the Supreme Court, the RSS chief has taken the party and the Hindutva brotherhood to the days of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in the 1990s when the saffron storm-troopers used to say that the courts can have no say in a matter of faith.
Apart from a reiteration of this aggressive “religious” stance, Bhagwat’s directive to the BJP to get down to business and not dilly-dally any longer on building the temple has scrapped Atal Behari Vajpayee’s decision in 1996 to put in cold storage the three “core” issues of the Sangh parivar — building the temple, doing away with Article 370 of the Constitution conferring special status on Jammu and Kashmir, and introducing a uniform civil code
That the negation of Vajpayee’s wishes has been done in the year of his death is not without significance. It remains to be seen whether the RSS will give any “advice” to the government on the two other issues — Article 370 and the uniform civil code.
But why the sudden hurry about constructing the temple? There may be two reasons. One is that it is the last throw of the dice by the party and the parivar in an election season to consolidate its vote bank of communal-minded Hindus at a time when the less than favourable economic scene may make sections of the liberal Hindus, who voted for the BJP in 2014, drift away.
The other is the realisation in the saffron brotherhood that it is now or never where the temple is concerned since the BJP is unlikely to get a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha in 2019. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by it may get it, but it will not be easy for the BJP to persuade some of its allies such as the Janata Dal (United) — which has opposed the BJP’s favourite triple talaq ordinance — and the Akali Dal to endorse a construction programme which cannot but alienate the minorities.
Notwithstanding BJP president Amit Shah’s conviction that the party will reign for half a century, there may be an awareness in the organisation that the 2014 outcome was the result of several unforeseen events — the Congress’s sudden and somewhat inexplicable collapse and Modi’s emergence (against the wishes of several in his party) as some kind of a messiah. From this standpoint, 2019 will not be the same as 2014.
Ever since the party and the parivar sensed that the mantras of neither “achhe din” (good days) nor “sabka saath, sabka vikas” (development for all) is evoking a favourable response, the focus of the saffron propaganda has been on Hindu-Muslim polarisation.
Whether it is extending the scope of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from Assam to other states or the removal of long-established Muslim names in Uttar Pradesh like Mughalsarai and Allahabad, the BJP’s aim has been to send the message that Muslims will be under pressure to prove the genuiness of their citizenship and that India’s multi-cultural past will be erased as Hindu rashtra takes root.
Along with the direct and indirect offensive against Muslims, the parivar is also intent on confirming its Hindu credentials by opposing the Supreme Court’s verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala on the grounds it violates centuries-old beliefs.
The Sabarimala episode enables the RSS and the BJP to try and kill two birds with one stone. One is to project themselves as the standard-bearers of Hinduism, and the other is to flaunt a defiance of the Supreme Court.
The court has aroused the saffron lobby’s ire ever since it delivered a series of “progressive” judgments (of which Sabarimala is one) such as the one upholding the rights of privacy, which the government argued was an elitist concept, and the other was to decriminalise homosexuality in a case from which the government recused itself evidently because while the legalisation went against the BJP’s crusty orthodoxy, the party could not afford to be seen as living in Victorian times.
Sabarimala has given an opportunity to the RSS and the BJP to defy the apex court and suggest that it is not right all the time. The defiance may have also been motivated by the #MeToo movement which has claimed the scalp of a Union minister and persuaded another minister to say that those who support the movement are “perverted”.
Among the others who also answer to the description of being perverted are the so-called “Urban Naxalites”, a new form of abuse coined by the RSS and the BJP for the Left-Liberals who have always been called anti-nationals. Not surprisingly, another of the RSS chief’s advice to the government was to keep the “Urban Naxalites” under surveillance.
It will be interesting to know what those “secularists” who interacted with the RSS recently like former President Pranab Mukherjee and the business tycoon, Ratan Tata, think of the pitch for the temple and the castigation of “Urban Naxalites”.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : A number of Muslim organisations on Thursday slammed the triple talaq ordinance, calling it politically motivated and “unacceptable”.
Jamat-e-Islami Hind President Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari in a statement said that if the government is sincere about the welfare of Muslim women, it should hold discussion with ‘ulema’ (Islamic scholars) and experts of Islamic jurisprudence over the entire talaq-e-biddat (triple talaq) issue.
The Union Cabinet cleared the ordinance on Wednesday, and it was promulgated by the President. The ordinance prescribes up to three years jail and/or fine for the man who divorces his wife through triple talaq or instant divorce.
“The ordinance is against the Constitution of India that gives every citizen liberty to practise one’s religion and personal laws. The ordinance contravenes the Shariah laws,” said Maulana Umari.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind General Secretary Maulana Mahmood Madani said the ordinance was not going to favour the divorced women in any way and would instead harm their cause for justice.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday called the promulgation of Ordinance as “constitutional urgency.” Madani responded by saying that 201 incidents of talaq in two years or 100 cases per annum in 16-crore Muslim community “does not warrant such a hasty ordinance”.
“It is a clear instance of dictatorship. The government did not even feel the need to consult the community,” he said.
All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) President Navaid Hamid said the move was nothing but a “diversionary tactic” by the Modi government to deflect attention from its own failures and burning issues such as rising fuel prices and corruption.
“We should not even react to such provocations. I reckon the Modi government’s sole aim with this ordinance is to incite Muslims so that BJP can give it a communal colour and deflect attention from real issues,” Hamid told IANS.
“If the government is so sincere about the welfare of Muslim women, it should tell us what it is doing for the Muslim widows whose husbands have been killed in lynching cases over the last four years,” he added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ordinance making triple talaq a criminal offence, a bill on which is pending in the Rajya Sabha.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad gave the information to the media after the cabinet meeting.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The Law Commission has suggested certain changes in marriage and divorce laws that should be uniformly accepted in the personal laws of all religions, while holding that the uniform civil code “is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage” in the country.
The Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice B.S. Chauhan whose tenure ended on Friday, has come out with a 185-page consultation paper on “Family Law Reforms’ said a unified nation does not necessarily need to have “uniformity”.
It said the best way forward was to preserve diversity of personal laws even while ensuring they did not contradict fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
Saying, secularism cannot contradict the plurality prevalent in the country, the Commission said in the paper that: “Cultural diversity cannot be compromised to the extent that our urge for uniformity itself becomes a reason for threat to the territorial integrity of the nation.”
Suggesting amendments in marriage and divorce in personal laws of all religion, the Commission advocated making adultery a ground for divorce for men and women and to simplify divorce procedure.
“While all family laws include adultery as a ground for divorce it is important to ensure that the provision is accessible to both spouses,” the paper said.
The Commission said the filing of Section 498A IPC (dowry harassment) cases was actually done by women wanting a quick exit from a difficult marriage.
It suggested that ‘Nikahnamas’ should make it clear that “polygamy is a criminal offence” and this should apply to “all communities”.
The paper stated: “This is not recommended owing to merely a moral position on bigamy, or to glorify monogamy, but emanates from the fact that only a man is permitted multiple wives, which is unfair.”
It favoured fixing the marriageable age for boys and girls at 18 years so that they marry as equals, and said that the insistence on recognising different ages of marriage between consenting adults must be “abolished”.
“If a universal age for majority is recognised, and that grants all citizens the right to choose their governments, surely, they must then be also considered capable of choosing their spouses.
“For equality in the true sense, the insistence on recognising different age of marriage between consenting adults must be abolished.
“The age of majority must be recognised uniformly as the legal age for marriage for men and women alike, as is determined by the Indian Majority Act, 1875, i.e. eighteen years of age.
“The difference in age for husband and wife has no basis in law as spouses entering into a marriage are by all means equals and their partnership must also be of that between equals,” stated the report.
The Commission suggested that Parliament should enact a law to address the issue of legitimisation of children born of live-in relationships that fail to reach the threshold of a deemed marriage.
“Further, such children should be entitled to inherit the self acquired property of their parents,” it said.
It is urged that the legislature should first consider guaranteeing “equality within communities” between men and women, rather than “equality between communities”, the report, released on August 31 stated.
“This way some of the differences within personal laws which are meaningful can be preserved and inequality can be weeded out to the greatest extent possible without absolute uniformity,” it added.
The Commission said “efforts have to be made to reconcile our diversity with universal and indisputable arguments on human rights”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Hussain Dalwai
New Delhi : Congress member of Parliament Hussain Dalwai on Friday sparked a controversy by defending triple talaq, saying that even Lord Ram doubted Sita and abandoned her, but he later apologised for his remark.
The Congress party has, however, distanced itself from his remark, saying once he has clarified on his statement, there is no point in making a comment on it.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said: “Such statements have been made by many people earlier. Very serious remarks were made. Few days ago, Uttar Pardesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma had said that Mata Sita was a ‘test-tube baby’.
“Even Union Minister Mahesh Sharma had said in Parliament that Mata Sita was a fictional character. Such statements should not be made by anyone.”
Apologising for his remark, Dalwai said: “Whatever remark I made was wrong and I have apologise. I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s sentiment. It was being intentionally politicised.”
—IANS
