Against Criminalisation in Triple Talaq Bill, Congress Clarifies

File photo of Sushmita Dev.

(Photo: ANI)

Congress leader Sushmita Dev who had courted controversy earlier this week by saying that her party will repeal the Triple Talaq bill if voted to power in 2019 elections, clarified her stance on 8 February and said that she was only against the criminalisation aspect of the proposed legislation.

Speaking at the launch of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s book –Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India– Dev said, “If the credit for banning Triple Talaq is to go to someone, it’s the Supreme Court. The only credit that the BJP can take about triple talaq is to criminalise it. The bill is a lot about criminalisation. What does this bill bring to the table? It only brings criminalisation. I am not going to let an anti-Muslim party like the BJP tout the bill and portray themselves as a messiah.”

On Thursday, 7 February, Dev had said, “I promise all of you that if Congress is voted to power in 2019 elections then we will scrap the Triple Talaq law. I promise you all,” Dev said at the Congress’ minority department national convention in Delhi.

Dev further slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for using the law to harass the Muslim men and said, “We opposed the Triple Talaq Bill because it is being used by the BJP to harass Muslim men.”

The revised bill to make Triple Talaq – the practice of uttering the word talaq thrice to divorce their wives – a punishable offence was passed in the Lok Sabha in 2018.

However, Congress said that it will not allow the passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha where the government doesn’t have majority.