Days after the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Lucknow cleared the passports issued to interfaith couple – Tanvi Seth and Mohammad Anas Siddiqui – BJP’s National General Secretary, Ram Madhav, has spoken out in support of Tanvi Seth and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who were subjected to hate messages and trolling for supporting the couple.
In his column written for The Indian Express, Madhav argues:
The case pertaining to Tanvi Seth, the woman in question in the passport row, should actually have been used against the regressive clerics who insist upon changing the name of a Hindu woman to that of a Muslim in the nikahnama.
Madhav hails Seth as a hero and goes on to say that the social media “activists” should have taken on the clerics who insist upon the name change, and the officers who overrule valid documents and take cognisance of false documents.
Madhav also adds that in most cases, the name of the women is changed against her will.
The benefit of doubt, thus, goes in Tanvi Seth’s favour as one who decided to retain her Hindu name even after marrying a Muslim man — mind you, some 15 years ago.
He says that under the new passport laws, the passports issued to Seth and her husband stands because of two reasons.
Firstly, because a woman no longer requires a marriage certificate (which was the point of contention) and secondly, a person can apply for a passport from anywhere in the country. Moreover, a passport rules ask for criminal records of applicants through police verification.
“Every issue that involves two different religionists need not be seen from a religious prism alone,” Madhav added.
In Support of Sushma Swaraj
After weeks of silence, speaking out in support of his colleague and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Ram Madhav says that the online abuse and hounding is not valid.
What is not valid is the hounding, the abuse, the death-wishes, the obscenities like calling her ‘Begum Sushma’ or worse, commenting on her health and kidney – or a retired professor asking her husband to beat her up.Ram Madhav in The Indian Express
Madhav also points out the the decision to transfer the officer in question was taken at a lower level, and many jumped the gun by abusing and trolling the union minister for that decision.
He says a leader who has “championed the cause of nationalism” for over four decades was trolled by the people who “claim allegiance to the very same ideology”.
Ram Madhav’s support for Sushma Swaraj comes after Home Minister Rajnath Singh and union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Ram Vilas Paswan had spoken in support of her and condemned the trolling.
What Sparked This?
On 20 June, Tanvi Seth took to Twitter to say that she and her husband were humiliated by passport officer Vikas Mishra. The couple also alleged they were targeted and their application was stuck because of the officer’s behaviour.
After the allegations caught national attention, the officer was transferred to Gorakhpur.
Meanwhile, Vikas Mishra, the accused passport officer, denied any wrongdoing and said that he was just doing his job.
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)