"Why criminalise Triple Talaq when divorces happen in all religions": Kerala CM Vijayan - The Free Media

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre over the Triple Talaq law, asking why the practise of instant divorce among Muslims was “criminalised” when divorces occur in all religions.

“While divorce occurs in all religions, only the Triple Talaq has been criminalised” (through the law). Why is it only a criminal offence for Muslims? In court, all other divorce cases are treated as civil matters. However, if there is a divorce between a Muslin couple, that person (husband) can be sent to jail (for pronouncing Triple Talaq to his spouse),” Kerala CM said on Monday while inaugurating the ruling CPM’s march, ‘Janakeeya Prathirodha Jadha,’ in Kasaragod. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), introduced by the Centre to facilitate the grant of citizenship to minority Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and Parsis from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, will not be implemented in Kerala “at any cost,” according to Vijayan.

“Through the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Centre used religion to determine citizenship. We’ve already stated our position. “At any cost, we will not implement it here,” Vijayan declared. He questioned whether a country could have separate punitive standards for matrimonial divorce. “People from various religious backgrounds have come here for the conference. Can we use a different mode of punishment for each person? There is one law for one religion and another law for another. Can we claim that we got our citizenship because we were born into a particular religion?” Vijayan enquired.

Furthermore, in a scathing attack on the Jamaat-e-Islami for allegedly attending a recent RSS meeting, Vijayan stated that the Jamaat’s position on minorities does not reflect the position of other Muslim groups. “For whom did Jamaat e Islami hold talks with the RSS? It could not have been for the minority community because the majority of our country is secular and sees the RSS’s communal agenda. “The Jamaat e Islami’s position is not shared by other Muslim organisations,” he said. The CM also claimed that a section of the Congress is soft on the RSS, while a section of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) took the lead in brokering an alliance with the Welfare Party.