Rahul Gandhi Repeating His Father's Monumental Mistake on Triple Talaq, Says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Criticising the Congress for promising to withdraw the Triple Talaq Bill if it comes to power, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday wrote in his blog that Bareilly Nikah Halala type incidents, which shook conscience of people, ought to be made unconstitutional.

According to reports, a woman, who was divorced twice by her husband in Bareilly, was forced to undergo Nikah Halala as per the Islamic law — on first occasion with her father-in-law and on the subsequent occasion with her brother-in-law.

“Some incidents are so unconscionable and repulsive that they shake the conscience of the society and compel it to take remedial measures. Injustice perpetuated by personal laws is a glaring example of this,” wrote Jaitley.

Under Nikah Halala, a man cannot remarry his former wife unless she marries another man, consummates the marriage, gets a divorce and observes a period of separation period called 'iddat'.

“The late Rajiv Gandhi committed a monumental mistake in legislatively overturning the Shah Bano judgment of the Supreme Court, which guaranteed maintenance to all Muslim women,” the senior BJP minister wrote.

Comparing the 32-year-old incident with Congress’s current stand, he wrote “Unfortunately, when human conscience should have been repelled while reading this news in the morning newspapers; the AICC President Rahul Gandhi and his coterie, while addressing a minority convention, promised to withdraw the bill pending in Parliament,” wrote Jaitley.

Thirty-two years later, Jaitley added, Rajiv Gandhi’s son has taken another retrograde step to drive Muslim women not merely into destitution, but also to live a life which is an antithesis of human existence. “The Muslim woman in Bareilly has been forced into animal existence,” he wrote.

“Votes are important, so is fairness. Political opportunists only look at the next day's headlines. Nation-builders look at the next century,” asserted Jaitley.