Congress asks TRS to clear its stand on Triple Talaq Bill

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Tuesday demanded that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi make its stand clear on the Triple Talaq Bill.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Minorities Department Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail, in a media statement on Tuesday, said that the Triple Talaq Bill was nothing but an attempt by the BJP Government to interfere in the Muslim Personal Law. Therefore, he said that the Congress party has been opposing the Bill in the Parliament. He reminded that it was the Congress party which blocked the Triple Talaq Bill in Rajya Sabha when it was introduced last time. This time too, he said that the Congress party has been opposing the Bill. However, he said that the TRS had supported the BJP Government by abstaining during voting on Triple Talaq Bill in Lok Sabha on December 27, 2018. This time too, the TRS has decided to abstain from the Triple Talaq Bill debate and voting in the Parliament.

"TRS should make its stand clear on whether it was in favour of the Bill or against it. It cannot simply go into hiding to facilitate the BJP Government pass the Bill in the Parliament. TRS cannot be both communal and secular at the same time," he said and advised Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao to speak on the issue and direct his party MPs to openly oppose the Bill in the Parliament if TRS was against it.

The Congress leader alleged that the BJP Government was trying to hurt the sentiments of Muslim community by raising non-issues like Triple Talaq. He said BJP was trying to brand entire Muslim community as the suppresser of women's rights. He said divorce was a social problem and it could not be linked with the religion. As per Census 2011, there were 13,62,316 divorcees in India and nearly 70.67% are Hindus and 19.79% are Muslims. Of 2,69,609 Muslim divorcees, as many as 212,074 are women. He asked BJP leaders to give the exact numbers or approximate percentage of cases of Triple Talaq among 2.12 lakh cases across the country. He said the percentage of divorcees against total Muslim population was just 0.16% while the women's percentage is mere 0.12%. "On the pretext of giving justice to less than 0.1% of total Muslim women in the country, BJP is trying to defame the entire community while making a bid to interfere in the Muslim Personal Law," he said.

Sohail said that the Muslim community follows Holy Quran and takes guidance from the life of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Therefore, no one can change the Shariah of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) or force Muslims to follow anything which is against Islam. "People with half-knowledge or wrong interpretations have made several attempts throughout history to change the Shariah. However, all such attempts resulted only in failure and nothing prevented Muslims from following Islam," he said while adding that BJP Government, in connivance with other pseudo-secular parties like TRS, is trying to incite communal hatred by raising non-issues. He said Indian Muslims will not fall prey to such evil designs and wage a legal and constitutional battle to protect Shariah.