MY various TAKES on the HYPED Triple Talaq Issue that is being used by the SANGHIS to beat the Muslim community with and to shamelessly POLARISE the SOCIETY along religious lines for  Electoral Gains.

DATE: May 13, 2017

               

I)               Apropos the Hype, Hyperbole and Hoopla that the whole nation (Including the Supreme Court!) has been pushed into by a very clever, Goebbelian  use of media by the  Extended Sangh Parivar over an issue that concerns totally and is obviously intrinsic to Muslim Sharia – Triple Talaq, that concerns only an infinitesimal  fraction of Muslim women-Date May, 12,2017

            

There is CERTAINLY more to it than what MEETS the eye, behind the Lip-service being offered and crocodile tears that the Sangh Parivar Conglomerate is shedding over the Muslim Women’s rights!

It is all the more hypocritical of men like Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitely and even the PM who are mouthing platitudes and giving sermons ad-nauseum  to the Muslim community over this contentious Muslim Personal Law issue, at a time when they are failing to ensure even the Fundamental Right to LIFE  of Muslim MEN, especially those from the lower economic strata like Cattle Traders and Dairy farmers many of who are being harassed and victimized by Goons and Lumpen elements masquerading as “Gau-Rakshaks”  in the most savage manner, a lawless vigilantism that has already caused six gory  deaths so far in the last two years.

So, this all-round Hype, Hyperbole and Hoopla that has been orchestrated through the media by the extended Sangh Parivar is clearly for Political Reasons, and only as a ploy to raise one more communally sensitive, contentious & polarising  issue obviously for electoral benefits .

Why is this government, that has, defacto  (and - dejure; shortly, if R S S Chief becomes the President of India?), a back-seat Driving HEAD, from  the Hindutva Organisation - R S S , does not focus on the ills of Dowry Deaths, Child Marriages, Female Infanticide, Honour Killing, Female Malnutrition, whose incidence is highest among the Hindus and more importantly, on elimination of  the millennia old Scourge of an otherwise tolerant faith Hinduism-the pernicious practice of un-touchability against Dalits, that is still practiced with impunity despite strict laws against it, by the upper caste Hindus and more so in Rural India ( Segregated Colonies, Separate Wells, Separate Tumblers  at Tea shops for Dalits, and the most chillingly abhorrent practice of SEATING DALIT CHILDREN separately for partaking of the Mid-Day meal even in SCHOOLS, etc)?

AND with a method in their madness, every now &and then these hypocrites raise some controversial issue or the other so as to either divide and polarize the society along religious or caste lines for electoral gains or to DIVERT the ATTENTION of the MASSES away from the UTTER FAILURES of this government in fulfilling most of its election campaign promises and other failures on all other governance fronts.

It is High time that Free and Independent Press ( more so National Dailies like The Hindu with reputation of being a 130 years old warrior for dissemination of TRUTH) stops becoming   mouth-pieces for the Sangh and should come out openly against these Oft-repeated Goebbelian trick of propaganda ( just like it was used in Hitler's Germany) comprising of spreading  half-truths, slander and calumny as GOSPEL TRUTH, that the “Far Right Extended Sangh Parivar” uses for Covering up Gross Incompetence and failures of their  B J P government.    

II)            APROPOS- “Clearing Misconceptions” created through disinformation propagated mischievously by communal vested interests around the Sharia law on divorce in Islam ( with a clear intention to use it as a handle to beat the Muslim community with and for polarising communities on religious line for electoral gains).

(1)   NIKAH (marriage) in the Muslim community is not a Sacrament, like it is among Hindus and Christians. Nikah is primarily  an “AHAD” meaning a “Contract or Agreement” between a “Consenting Adult Male” and a “Consenting Adult Female” member of the Muslim Community, to live together with all conjugal rights and duties as endowed up on them by the Sharia.

(2)    As such, the Nikah ceremony is ordained to be and is in most cases,  a simple OATH TAKING CEREMONY over a written agreement by the two consenting adults and gets consummated in less than 15 minutes in the presence of close relatives, with one proposer and  one witness from the Girl’s side and another witness from the Boy’s side who also sign the marriage register that records, apart from all other details, the AMOUNT of DOWER ( call it a surety amount or REVERSE-of-DOWRY!) that the husband will pay, immediately or in a deferred manner to the wife. This Dower amount is fixed mutually by the two sides but it is PRIMARILY the responsibility of Girl’s Parents /relatives to fix a reasonable sum in proportion to the Boy’s earnings and existing wealth.

(3)   Just as the NIKAH is consummated in a peaceful manner and  without much fanfare, the Sharia law provides for  a married couple who feel they are no more compatible and are at loggerhead very often and whose marriage is no more sustainable, a Controlled, Simple

     and Well delineated route of dissolution of their marriage called ‘talaq” (Divorce). Where as in     other communities it ends up being a hard drawn out legal battle that leaves both husband & wife “imprisoned in a traumatic and unwanted relationship” for an unpredictably long period, till they get the divorce from the civil courts after many years!  

(4)   As per Sharia, Talaq from the Man’s side has to be  completed in three stages – with a Gap of three months in between the declaration of  intent to divorce so that in case the couple wants, they  may reconciles their differences during those  three months GAP that they get between the first and the third declaration of talaq by the man so that they can continue as man and wife. All other deviations are Highly Repugnant “Biddat” that Islamic Sharia does not approve or accept.

(5)   Like a Muslim man has a right to dissolve a Failed Marriage, the Muslim woman too has this right, called “ Qula” where she individually or with her relatives approaches the “Qazi-e-Shehar” ( adjudicator), to dissolve her marriage and gets it dissolved in front of witnesses so that the DIVORCED MAN  CAN NOT IMPOSE UP ON HER AGAIN through FORCE!

(6)   In case of a man divorcing his wife, he necessarily has to shell out  the AMOUNT of DOWER in HARD CASH or in terms of Gold promised to the wife and has to return all the Jewelry and gifts that she would have got from her friends and relatives, as well as any JOINT ACCOUNT CASH that she had contributed through her own  earnings, apart from  maintenance amount towards her maintenance commensurate with their normal living standard for three months after divorce called the period of “iddat” after which the woman is free to marry to any other person of her choice.

(7)   The hype over “NIKAH-HALA” is actually TURNING a RULE that is in fact in favour of the woman / wife into something obnoxious! This LAW is meant to DETER men from taking a hasty decision on talaq as a WARNING that in case after Talaq gets firmly consummated and later if he regains his feelings of love and attachment of his divorced wife, he wouldn’t be able to go back to her easily and hence has to think dispassionately before divorcing her. 

So to conclude, the hype, hyperbole and hoopla that has been generated over a DEVIANT PRACTICE of “simultaneous declaration of talaq three times by ignoramuses, wrongly being referred to as ‘triple talaq’, is totally unwarranted as TALAQ among Muslims is always a “Three STAGE and deferred TALAQ”! AND, just due to a FEW Muslim men, deliberately misinterpreting and “MIS-USING” it, one need not “throw out the well established and Sacrosanct Sharia Law on divorce –that will be akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water! AND so, I hope the Supreme Court will really go through the entire GENESIS and PRACTICE of the Sharia Law on divorce instead of getting mislead by the deliberate hype, hyperbole and hoopla generated around the misnomer of “triple talaq”.

AND this is the BASIS for COURTS to decide on issues connected with PERSONAL LAWS:

1950s judgment of the Bombay High Court in State of Bombay versus Narasu Appa Mali continues to hold fort. The Narasu Appa Mali judgment had held that personal law is not ‘law’ under Article 13. The court had observed that reformation of personal laws is best left to the legislature as "chosen representatives of the people" and not the judiciary. It said the phrase ‘customs and usages’ in Article 13 does not include personal laws of various religions.