Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for pushing the triple talaq Bill.
Speaking at a public meeting in Nizamabad on Sunday, Mr Owaisi said the triple talaq Bill would victimise women and not benefit them in anyway.
“The Constitution allows Muslims to follow the Sharia. No force can take that away,” he said.
He said the Bill as it stood would send the husband to jail, as it criminalises triple talaq, and throw the wife and children on the road.
“The saffron party wants to defame Islam and spread hatred against Muslims across the country. Non-Muslims divorcing their wives get only one-year imprisonment, while Muslims will go to jail for three years,” he claimed.
He said in Bihar, nearly 3,000 marriages were solemnised at gunpoint. Grooms kidnapped the girls and forced them to marry.
“I ask are these marriages void or legal? Is that physical relationship rape or not? Sexual assault or not? Women are being raped. Your government should bring in legislation against forced marriages,” Mr Owaisi said.
He dared the Prime Minister to bring in legislation providing seven per cent reservation for the education of Muslim women or providing substantial allowance of Rs 2,000 crore.
“If the BJP government is concerned about Muslim women and gender justice, I am ready to support it,” he said, hinting that it is not concern for Muslim women as much as wanting to put down the Muslim community that is at the back of the triple talaq Bill.
