The BJP government ruling India
today came to power because, PM Modi could succeed in convincing the voters
about his ability to bring in changes in the economic scenario prevailing just
before election through a number of tall promises made during his hectic election campaign. The youth were
promised jobs, the corporates were assured of freedom from tax terrorism and from bureaucratic delays, the foreign
investors were guaranteed of ease of doing business in India and the citizens
of India were made to believe in the BJP party’s ability to remove corruption from this nation which
reached its height during the last phase of the then ,Congress government. But
after 30 months of rule, the people have realised that all the promises made in
the most thundering voice were not anywhere near the promises made. Under -performance
has made the opposition parties bolder in criticisms and the media is giving
the true picture of the economic scenario.
The total effect of the disappointments to the voters will surely , reflect on
the next General Election verdict. Hence, the BJP was in search of a tool to
divert the people’s attention from its dismal economic performance and it found
it in the threat to introduce Uniform Civil Code for India.
We should not forget that, it is the RSS which
sets the social and cultural agenda for the present government, the BJP party, its
political agenda and the BJP government it’s economic agenda. We are very aware
of the components of the social and the cultural agenda of the RSS. One such
component is uniform civil code. When the nation is desperately waiting for
economic reforms and getting disappointed with the government performance, the
government has opted to divert the attention of the people by creation social
tension in the country through attempts to introduce the Uniform Civil Code, knowing very well the
consequences .
Even if, the government has the
noble intention of gifting the Muslim women of India gender justice through
reforms in the Muslim personal law, The BJP party is not the suitable agency to do it. At the
time of partition, the congress government in charge of the affairs of the
nation had promised to the Muslims who opted to stay In India that, they would
be allowed to practice their personal laws as per the shariyah rules. Now this
promise is conveniently forgotten and under the pretext of gender justice. s
Does the BJP government claim ,that , all the women in the other communities in India
are enjoying gender justice? ? Are they under the impression that there is no
polygamy and torture of divorce among non Muslims? Are they ignorant about the facts that way back, it was Islam, which gave right
to Muslim women regarding consent for marriage, right to divorce, right to
remarry, right to inherit properly , right
to seek knowledge and the right
to practice professions? Other communities get these rights only from 20th
century through enactment of certain laws . Moreover how can the Prime minister
talk of gender justice to Muslim women,when he has the history behind him of
closing his eyes when ,so many Muslim women were widowed, Muslim girls made
orphans and young Muslim women were specially targeted for rape ?
One advice to the Muslim community. If we fail
to keep our home in order , outsiders will peep in and interfere . How many
years back the Sachaar Committee had reported about the utter backwardness of
the Muslim women ? Any of the community political or religious leaders bothered
about taking efforts to improve their status? The Muslim women had been
complaining about triple talaq for a
long time . Any one cared to remove this injustice ? It is ve y funny that .in
every media discussion and in religious gatherings. the triple talaq is condemned as un Islamic
practice since it is against shariya. But. The men do not want any law against it and total removal of it from Muslims personal
law practices. What is the reason the women of India wonder. Similarly the arguments regarding polygamy can not be trivialised by quoting the rules
to be maintained by men when he takes more than one wife and by arguing that it is the other communities
which have more number of polygamy cases in reality . No woman with a rational
mind and dignity will accept this situation
happily because, the religion has given the sanction to men in this matter. How
many of the religious practices men follow strictly for them to claim that, in
polygamy matter they are only following shariyah rules ? Therefore, let us
accept the fact that, there are certain imperfections in the personal law
practices among Muslims, the Hindus and
Christians . Where ever it is possible ,
without interfering with the shariyah laws , reforms can be introduced but, not unilaterally by Muslim law board or some other boards. It
should be done , after a wider and
deeper discussion among the religious. Political, business leaders , Islamic
scholars and academicians . These discussion forums should include
knowledgeable women representatives too . Side by side , every women group which is
gathering periodically to day in cities and towns in different areas to
create awareness about the meaning and
interpretation of the quranic passages and the
hadhiths and shariyah rules should
also create awareness among them about the new problem created by this government and educate them
about the various aspects and components of the Muslim personal law. Muslim women today are living
in a blissful state of ignorance about many
matters regarding their life and
about changes that are taking place in India
today . Education them on these matters is the need of the hour .
The government is giving wider
publicity about the questionnaire circulated to know the views of the people on
common civil code and personal laws of the different communities .How many Muslims particularly women who
answer attempt to answer these questions ,know the minute religious rules
guiding the personal laws for them to
answer correctly? What is going to be the sample size of this survey ? How
authentic is going to be the data collection? What would be the degree of transparency regarding the survey process? We all know
that, in India statistics is collected carelessly and presented very
carefully and manipulated as per the hidden agenda of the surveys . Hence nobody is going to
trust the outcome this survey . Any
effort to bring a UCC by the government would be i seen by minority groups surely, with suspicion. Many fear that, the UCC will reflect the norms of the majority
community and destroy the multiplicity and diversity of smaller groups.
One advice to the government is,
concentrate on fulfilling your election promises and leave the matters regarding the personal laws to the
respective communities. If your ambition is to become Asian leader beating
China concentrate on it . Bring back all
the black money hidden outside India and distribute among the citizens as
promised during the election campaign. Any imperfections
in their personal laws of the different religious groups can be
corrected by the respective communities after free and fair debates . They themselves ,can take efforts to render gender justice
within the limits of their personal laws. Government interference in this
matter is unwarranted and unnecessary. Let it spend its energy and resources on
productive matters and leave the perfect implementation of the personal laws to
the various communities in India.
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