Modi, triple talaq' & BJP's gender politics

Earlier it was only his followers, specially in states where polls were due — and notably BJP president Amit Shah, besides some Union Cabinet ministers and sundry elements of the battering Ram brigade the RSS and kindred bodies use to create high-profile ruckus. But it is evident now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to leave his own imprimatur on the “triple talaq” issue.

The PM took up the subject at length on Saturday, urging Muslims not to see it through the lens of politics, at a function in New Delhi to commemorate the Kannada 12th century philosopher-reformer Basaveswara. No big guess to make here. Karnataka is due to hold Assembly elections in the not too distant future and the BJP is trying hard to wrest the state back from the Congress. And “triple talaq’ is a lovely, double-edged, issue — it is suitably communal and can also be used to make a gender rights argument.

Many Muslim men in India have lately strayed far from the original Qoranic injunction. They repeat the word “talaq” (divorce) over the phone three times or just text it to their wife, and the marriage is over. Such a barbaric practice allows non-Muslims, and certainly communalised Hindus, to feel superior to Muslims and to denigrate them.

This is anyway the communal project, and at election time can be used to great advantage to polarise. But “triple talaq” also has the potential to galvanise Muslim women in the BJP’s support in the name of gender justice, and it is thought some Muslim women did indeed vote for the saffron party in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

This aspect was underlined in Mr Modi’s speech as he said “the enlightened” among our Muslims were sure to take up the cause. While he urged his listeners not to politicise the “triple talaq” matter, it is noteworthy the PM himself was returning to the subject for the second time this month — the first being his speech at the BJP national executive in Bhubaneswar recently.

Outfits like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, of course, do the Indian Muslim no favours when they staunchly defend the current, degenerate, practice of “triple talaq”, overlooking the woman’s perspective completely and seeking to suppress the voice of Muslim women’s groups in all parts of India which are speaking out against “triple talaq” and even espousing marriage under the Special Marriage Act.

It is, however, touching to see that while the PM feels for the plight of Muslim women, he has revelled in silence when the Muslim community as a whole has been pilloried by the mushrooming Hindutva vigilante bodies, particularly Muslim men now in the eye of the storm, thanks to “gaurakshak” activity.