Won’t allow triple talaq bill to pass in Rajya Sabha: Congress

Kochi: The Congress will not let the passage of the triple talaq Bill in its present form in the Rajya Sabha, All India Congress Committee general secretary K.C. Venugopal said in Kochi on Saturday.

The party would join hands with those parties with whom it could ally with to defeat the Bill in the present form, he told reporters. 

Ten Opposition parties had come out openly against the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 when it was introduced in the Lok Sabha. Even the parties, including the AIADMK that supports the Union government on various issues and the Trinamool Congress, have come out openly against it, said Mr. Venugopal, who is also a Congress floor strategist.

Stringent provisions such as the criminalisation of a civil wrong were there in the Bill and it was not at all acceptable for the Opposition parties, including the Congress. “...The Bill will not help empower women”, Mr. Venugopal said.

The Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday, is expected to be considered by the Rajya Sabha next week.

Mr. Venugopal claimed that there was no confusion in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance or the party-led United Democratic Front in Kerala on the Bill.

Recalling the passage of the Bill in another form in the Lok Sabha in 2017, the Alappuzha MP said the then government could not push the Bill in the Upper House due to the stringent opposition from the Congress and other Opposition parties.

“That is the reason why the government brought the ordinance and re-introduced the Bill again in the Lok Sabha. But the Congress will oppose its passage in the present form in the Rajya Sabha,” he said.

The Congress had accused the National Democratic Alliance government of getting the triple talaq Bill passed in haste in the Lok Sabha keeping in mind the 2019 general election.

The party had said its provisions were against the Constitution as well as fundamental rights.

The Opposition, which had been demanding that the Bill be referred to a ‘joint select committee’, staged a walkout when its demand was rejected by the government.

The Bill was passed by the Lower House with 245 voting in favour and 11 opposing it.

Ravi Shankar Prasad says there should be no politics on Bill

Piloting the Bill, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said there should be no politics on the Bill, stressing that it was not against any particular community.

BJP chief Amit Shah had described the passage of the Bill in the Lok Sabha as a historic step to ensure equality and dignity of Muslim women, and demanded an apology from the Congress for decades of ''injustice.''