Grilled on CAA at WEF, Goyal says Muslims in India safer than anywhere else

Defending the new citizenship amendment law, Goyal also said, ‘India has a duty to protect people who are sufferers of religious persecution’

Union minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said Muslims in India are safer than most places in the world. “India is probably one of the most inclusive societies in the world,” Goyal said here at a session on ‘Strategic Outlook: India’ at the WEF 2020. “India is a country which welcomes all diverse viewpoints, all diverse opinions, the Muslims in India are safer than any other part of the world in terms of equal opportunity,” he stressed. He further noted that there is absolutely no discrimination in any of the government programmes.

“When we take electricity to every home we do not ask them their colour or their religion, when we take toilets, digital tech, bank accounts, cooking gas to every home we do not ask their religion. All our programmes are equal for all,” the minister said. Defending the new citizenship amendment Act, Goyal also said, “India has a duty to protect people who are sufferers of religious persecution.”

The minister for Railways as well as Commerce and Industry, said India is a land that has the power of democracy, demography, leadership, talent, culminating in the “power of opportunity.” “Citizenship is an area that every country protects, that every country has the rules of the game, every country has citizenship laws that are respected by the world,” he said. He further said there are about 57 odd islamic countries in the world and except for one or two, every country respects that what India is doing is for the welfare of the people of India, across all religion” he said…

Between ‘too Muslim’ and ‘not Muslim enough’, a lonely Naseeruddin Shah

In India’s religiously polarised politics, the space for Nasseruddin Shahs of the world is ever shrinking

Latest News: The script is now nauseatingly familiar. A prominent public figure expresses his disquiet about the growing intolerance in India. All hell immediately breaks loose. Polite commentary labels him a Congress stooge or challenges him to prove his patriotism equating Modi with the idea of Indian nationhood; the excitable immediately warn of that well trodden threat of shipping him across the western borders.

True to form, India’s cacophony of news channels organised platitudinous debates where all extremist voices were amplified. One particularly enterprising network even managed to assemble members of Naseeruddin Shah’s extended family as they have some special insight on his comments!

Lost amidst this din is the actual import of the original comments. There is nothing which Mr. Shah said which was particularly exceptional or surprising. Let’s look at the extant case. A mob assembled and led by local Bajrang Dal sympathisers—euphemistically known as the sword arm of the ruling BJP—-ambushed a police officer in Bulandshahar. Three weeks later, under the watch of a chief minister touted by BJP sympathisers as ‘no nonsense’ and tough on crime, the prime accused have still managed to evade arrest. The UP police which has been accused of stage managing encounters appears helpless in catching those credibly accused of killing one of their own…

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Supreme Court sets aside instant triple talaq in split verdict

Judgment on triple talaq is historic, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi

 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declared that the centuries-old practice of instant triple talaq among the Muslim community was unconstitutional.The five-judge Constitution bench presided over by Chief Justice J S Khehar delivered a split verdict 3:2 in three separate judgments. The order seeks to overturn the conventional belief that it is the community itself, not Parliament or courts, which should reform religious or personal law.

The majority (economy news)judges ruled that the divorce allowed for a Muslim man by pronouncing talaq (talaq-e-biddat) thrice violated the Constitutional provisions. In two separate judgments, they reviewed earlier laws and high court judgments to strike down triple talaq as unauthorised by the Quran, the holy book of Islam.

ALSO READ: Divorcing triple talaq

However, the chief justice, along with Justice Nazeer, was in a minority, upholding the practice of triple talaq as part of the personal law of the Muslims and, therefore, protected by Article 25 of the Constitution. Putting the onus on Parliament, the two dissenting members of the bench, in a 270-page judgment, urged the government to pass a law on the subject within six months; till then there would be an injunction on talaq. However, as it is merely a minority view, it has no authority.

Kamini Jaiswal, a senior advocate at the Supreme Court, while welcoming the overall decision of the apex court, has expressed disappointment on the minority verdict. “Allowing triple talaq on the grounds of Article 25, while leaving it open to the government to restrict it through legislation, seems counterproductive. Wouldn’t the making of any such law be hit by the very same fundamental right that was used to uphold it?” Jaiswal argued.

All political parties and leaders from minority communities welcomed the apex court order, including Kapil Sibal, the lawyer for the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) which argued against judicial intervention in triple talaq. Sibal said, “We hail the judgment. It protects personal laws and at the same time deprecates the practice of triple talaq.”   (read full story)