LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday invoked an episode from the Mahabharat to slam people watching as mute spectators as the practice of triple talaaq goes on in Muslim society.
Such people, he said, were akin to Dronacharya and Bhishma, who watched silently as Draupadi was disrobed in the Kaurava court.
"Some people are maintaining silence on this issue. This reminds me of the scene in the Mahabharata in which Draupadi is being disrobed and she asks a question to the gathering as to who is responsible for this incident, this sin?" Adityanath said at a book release function in Lucknow.
"No one uttered even a single word. Only Vidur said people who have committed the crime, the accomplices and those who maintained silence on this issue are equally responsible," he said.
Reacting sharply, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) termed Adityanath's remark as "jaahilaanaa" (foolish).
On Adityanath's statement, AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Wali Rahmani said, "I don't know how to react to the jaahilaanaa statement. He is linking talaq with a greater issue -- the disrobing of Draupadi. No sane person will do so. He is looking at things using a different lens (doosraa chashmaa)."
The UP chief minister’s pointed observation was of a piece with BJP leaders’ effort to build up opinion in favour of a Uniform Civil Code. “Muslims are equal citizens under the Constitution and all should be equal before the law of the land,” he stated.
Adityanath’s observations came a day after the working committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) came up with an eight-point code of conduct for pronouncement of talaq by Muslim men. It proposed social boycott of Muslim men who would try to dissolve their marriage by pronouncing talaq thrice in one sitting without wife’s consent.
Adityanath’s pitch follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent exhortation to BJP supporters to stand by Muslim women who are fighting the practice of triple talaq.
However, AIMPLB, a stakeholder in the litigation being heard by the Supreme Court, is vehemently opposed to the move to amend the triple talaq practice, which it says is in conformity with the Shariat.
A Constitution bench of Supreme Court is scheduled to start hearing litigation against triple talaq from May 11.
Adityanath also sought to temper the vigilante fervor of Hindu outfits like the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) and the World Hindu Federation, which were reportedly involved in a series of incidents in western UP.
Adityanath sounded a special word of caution to cadres of the two groups, both founded by him, at a recent meeting. They were advised to report incidents to the state government rather handle it themselves.
Last week in Meerut, a HYV mob barged into the house of a Muslim man and intruded into his privacy with his girl friend and raised a ruckus about obscenity.