Congress dilly-dallied on Triple Talaq for vote bank: Law Minister

 New Delhi : Holding the Congress party responsible for stymieing the Triple Talaq Bill in the Parliament, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said, a barbaric Triple Talaq curse was not allowed to be ended because of ambiguity and the vacillations of the Congress party.

Addressing reporters after the Cabinet approved the Ordinance on Triple Talaq, the union minister said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made numerous attempts to take the Congress party on board but failed.

Slamming the United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the minister accused the Congress of indulging in vote bank politics.

"It is my serious charge with full sense of responsibility, that a distinguished woman leader is the ultimate leader of the Congress party, yet such a barbaric inhuman Triple Talaq curse was not allowed to be ended by a parliamentary law because of ambiguity and the vacillations of the Congress party," said Prasad.

"We made all efforts to take the Congress party on board. On the instructions of the Prime minister, Ananth Kumar and I met the Congress leaders, but under the pressure of their vote bank the Congress party did not support us," he claimed.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ordinance or an Executive Order on Triple Talaq bill, making it a criminal act, sources confirmed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led-government approved the ordinance after it could not be tabled in the Rajya Sabha due to lack of consensus last month during the monsoon session of the Parliament even as the Union Cabinet had approved an amendment to the Bill.

The Ordinance is likely to kick off a controversy as the Congress party had opposed the "criminalisation" aspect in the Triple Talaq Bill.

Triple Talaq, or verbal divorce, is often practiced by a section in the Muslim community in India to instantly divorce their wives by uttering the word 'Talaq' three times. Several Muslim and women organisations have, over the years, have decried the practice, calling it un-Islamic and anti-women.