Taking a hard line on Triple Talaq and Babri Masjid, former Chief Minister and PDP leader, Mehbooba Mufti, on Monday raked up these issues and warned, “we don’t want to create Zia-ul-Haq’s Pakistan in Gandhi’s India”.
Mehbooba, who was talking to media persons in Srinagar, accused the Modi government of “interfering in the religious matters of Muslims”. She alleged that by getting the Triple Talaq Bill passed in the Lok Sabha “they have invaded personal life of Muslims”.
Her frontal attack on the BJP has come within months after the latter pulled down her government by withdrawing support to the PDP.
Indian Muslims and we from Jammu and Kashmir, which is a Muslim majority State, decided to stay with Gandhi’s secular democratic India and let us not convert it into Zia-ul-Haq’s Pakistan, she said in a threatening tone.
Describing the Triple Talaq issue as an onslaught on the religious matters of Muslims, Mehbooba said, “Democracy is not run through brute majority, it is about consensus. Muslims accepted the decision of Supreme Court on the invalidity of Triple Talaq, unlike the Sabarimala verdict. Best is to empower Muslim women to be able to face the world independently in case of a breakup”.
“Muslims pride themselves for strong family structure and bonding. Same is true of other religions in the East, which is considered as an advantage over the Western culture. This bill is a direct assault on that”.
She alleged that “After creating division on religious and sectarian lines, BJP, now wants to divide Muslim families through Triple Talaq bill. With economic onslaught on Muslims through curbs on beef and leather, the social crisis Triple Talaq Bill can cause, will impoverish them further”.
Mehbooba said, “I’ve gone through a broken marriage and I feel that women face their biggest challenge economically after the marriage is broken. When we talk about reservations for Muslims, BJP rejects it on religious lines. But when it comes to this kind of law, then they run to Parliament”.
“This will disturb our family life and also there will be more problems for women and men economically”, she said.