NEW DELHI: Three ministers of the Modi government on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Congress at an event marking the first anniversary of the law against triple talaq, saying the legislation could have been enacted in the 1980s, but for the alleged vote bank politics of the grand old party.
On the occasion, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad interacted with Muslim women from across the country via a video link, hailing the abolishment of instant triple talaq and criminalisation of the practice.
While Naqvi said the law was achieving the intended goals and triple talaq cases have come down drastically after the enactment of the law, Irani said the law was Modi government’s “Eidi” and “Rakhi gift” for Muslim women.
Incidentally, the event comes a day before Eid-al-Adha and three days before Raksha Bandhan. In an apparent dig at the Congress, Naqvi said triple talaq was “neither Islamic, nor legal”, but despite that, the social evil was given “political patronage” by “merchants of vote bank”. Shankar said the government is committed to political empowerment and not “political exploitation”.