Congress sabotaging Triple Talaq Bill: Jitendra Singh

Minister of State (MoS) for Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh on Sunday blamed the Congress Party of sabotaging the Triple Talaq Bill.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said that the people who always talk about social justice are not in favour of justice to women.

"I would like to say that the Congress Party has sabotaged this bill because they didn't want BJP to get credit for it. They don't want Muslim women to get justice. The irony is that the communist friends who always talk about social justice are not in favour of justice to women," he added.

Yesterday, The Congress stated that they were in favour of the triple talaq bill, but have rejected it as the current government did not give any 'clarity' over the sustenance of the victims.

"We are totally in favour of the bill, but some provisions are objectionable. The government has not clarified about the sustenance of the victims," Ghulam Nabi Azad said, in a press conference.

However, on Saturday, Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government was willing to "consider any reasonable and constructive suggestions from the Congress party or any other party" but the suggestion cannot be one that is "designed to kill the soul of the Bill".

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 seeks to criminalise instant divorce, triple talaq.

The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha with most of the leading parties in the Opposition, including the Congress, voting in favour, but with caveats.

The bill, if enacted, will make triple talaq a criminal offence. It proposes a three-year jail term for a Muslim man who divorces his wife in any form of spoken, written or by electronic means such as email, SMS, and WhatsApp.