Cong a stumbling block in the empowerment of women : Nadda

BJP working president J P Nadda Monday accused the Congress of being a "stumbling block" in the empowerment of women and alleged that the party does not want Muslim women to be in the country's mainstream.

Addressing a poll meeting at Govindpur block in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, Nadda said the Congress was opposing the progressive policies and decisions of the Centre.

He claimed that the Congress had opposed the Triple Talaq Bill for its vote bank though the practice hurt Muslim women in the country.

The Narendra Modi government banned the Triple Talaq forever. The Congress had been opposing the ban for protecting its vote bank.

The bill agaist instant triple talaq was passed in the Rajya Sabha on July 30. The Lok Sabha had passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019 a week earlier. President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill on August 1 turning it into a law which makes the practice of instant divorce among Muslims a punishable offence.

Congress is a stumbling block in the empowerment of women ... It does not like Muslim women being in the mainstream of the country, Nadda said.

Continuing his attack on the Congress, he said it opposed the Bill though Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt had banned the practice.

If laws can be made to ban child marriage and sati pratha why cannot triple talaq can be stopped through a legislation ? Nadda asked.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 came into force on 1 November 2007, while the sati practice, in which a widowed woman is burnt to death on her husband's funeral pyre, was formally banned by Lord William Bentinck on December 4, 1829.