Two days after getting a clear passage in the Rajya Sabha, the contentious Triple Talaq Bill today got the Presidential nod and has finally become law now.
Despite this historic decision, which would free Muslim women from the barbaric Islamic practise of triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat, the minister in the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal government, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, showing complete disrespect towards the Parliament and the President, refused to accept the Bill today saying “we cannot follow the law”.
Openly undermining and mocking the Parliament and President’s decision, the Minister of Mass Education in Mamata’s government and the president of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s West Bengal unit, Siddiqullah Chowdhury said that they cannot accept the new law as it will, in turn, deprive Muslim women of their rights.
“It is impossible for us to accept this at any cost. In fact, we dislike the move. This will also not, in any way, secure the safety and rights of women,” Chowdhury told reporters at a press conference today.
He further said that “it is a matter of grief and an attack on Islam”. “We will not accept it. We will decide on the further course of action when a central committee meeting takes place,” he added.
It is pertinent to note here that when the Triple Talaq Bill was put out to vote in Rajya Sabha one of TMC’s MP wasn’t even present when the voting took place. The TMC has suggested that the party would take action against the absent MP as the party had issued a whip.
The Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha with 99 Ayes and 84 Noes and after President Ram Nath Kovind’s nod today, the Bill has now become an act.
Earlier too, Siddiqullah Chowdhury had evoked similar controversy when the BJP government brought in the ordinance criminalizing triple talaq, by saying that the Constitution is subservient to the Quran. In September last year, he had pronounced that the Quran will prevail over the Constitution if any constitutional provision or law contradicts the Quran. “For us, our holy scripture, the Quran Sharif, is supreme and if any constitutional provision or any law contradicts the Quran, then our scripture will prevail and not the law or Constitution,” Chowdhury was quoted as saying then.
He had then gone on to blame the BJP government for playing the ‘religion card’ and the ‘constitution’ and reiterated that the ordinance will have no effect on the Muslims.
In 2017, the TMC minister had shockingly, refused to accept the path-breaking Supreme Court verdict striking down the 1,400-year-old practice of instant ‘triple talaq’.
Showing complete disrespect towards the highest judicial court in India, then too, the Minister of Mass Education in Mamata’s government had said, “The Supreme Court and the government can ponder on the triple talaq judgement. We Muslims believe in Islam and it permits triple talaq and it will remain that way,” Chowdhury had said, adding, “We will not tolerate any interference in it.”
