Muslim women, nay women of all communities, have cause to be overjoyed at the Supreme Court’s three-two verdict abolishing the archaic practice of instant divorce, or triple talaq as it was commonly known. It has been an arduous struggle for the women of the generally conservative community who displayed exemplary fortitude in taking the matter to the highest level of the judiciary.
If the clerics, or their representatives, feel that the judiciary has meddled in religious affairs they have only themselves to blame ~ had the All India Muslim Personal Law Board not adhered to obsolete thinking and given due recognition to gender parity, the judiciary might never have entered the picture.
Legal and religious experts will scrutinise both the majority and minority verdicts for they touch upon issues that are basic to a society that must move with the times and cast away concepts rooted in fundamentalism. To rush to conclusions and draw inferences in the absence of the requisite depth of scrutiny would be rash.
The “reaction” of the conservative section of the Muslim leadership is awaited: judicial orders and laws, alas, do not automatically impact the systems of traditional society ~ as proven by dowry continuing to be an “issue”. It is now for the progressive Muslim leadership to enlighten the conservatives that outdated practices need to be voluntarily abandoned. This is a lesson that holds across the religious spectrum.
Yesteryear’s thought-processes have limited relevance in contemporary society ~ that is the verdict’s larger message. That all political parties have welcomed the ruling is welcome. Yet a special responsibility now devolves on the government and the ruling party. For to interpret the verdict as affirming its “agenda” would do the apex court great disservice.
The BJP is entitled to believe the strong position the government took in court played its part in convincing their Lordships, but there is no room for gloating in a sensitive issue like religion. There can, however, be no limit to the shame and embarrassment the Congress must suffer because of the Rajiv Gandhi government’s undoing the verdict in the infamous Shah Bano case.
Political expediency is immoral, takes its toll someday. Yet it would be dangerous for elements in the Parivar to conclude that the court has accorded blanket vindication of every element of what some call a Hindu Rashtra. The judgments read together are nuanced and these must be understood. Mr Narendra Modi has done well to hail the verdict as “historic”, now he has a duty to ensure that others desist from reading more into it. As the verdict is analysed further no doubt some “negatives” will surface. An instant disgrace has been the attempt by some, including All India Radio, to hail the ver- dict because the five members of the Bench hailed from different religions. That equates with divorcing the court of intellectual independence, a tendency that must be eschewed for it colours honest dissent.