NAGPUR: After facing initial resistance from the grass roots workers, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) outfit, Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) plans to take up the parent body’s agenda on triple talaaq. There are plans to take up a strong campaign with eyes on votes from Muslim women as banning the practice may benefit them.
A state-level meeting of MRM has been planned on April 8 and 9 at Aurangabad on the issue. Similar events will be held elsewhere in the country too, said sources in the organsiation.
The Sangh Parivar is seeing electoral gains by raising the issue. It is being claimed that the Muslim women voted for BJP in the UP elections as the party was against triple talaaq. Now a similar campaign is planned for the upcoming Delhi municipal elections. A meeting has been planned late this month at Delhi to chalk out the strategy, said sources.
Even as RSS was opposing triple talaaq, many workers of MRM — which is an organsiation formed to connect with the Muslim community did not agree. A section of MRM workers considered it as tampering with the Sharia code. The resentment was aired during the internal meetings of the organsiation.
Now the issue has been resolved, said a senior functionary in MRM. The meetings at Aurangabad and Delhi will stress that triple talaaq is misused, rendering women destitute. The manner in which it is used is also against the religion, said the source.
The meet will be raising other issues too, said Farooq Shaikh, the convener of MRM’s Maharashtra wing. As triple talaaq is being opposed for maintaining women’s rights, the discussions will include raising demands for having Anganwadi’s giving instruction in Urdu at Muslim areas. A demand for modernization of madrasas through funding by state government will be raised, said Shaikh.
However, triple talaaq will be the main agenda for the Aurangabad meet, with stress on how it is misused. There are many cases in which women have been deserted by their husbands after a few years of marriage, he said.
Yasin Jilan, MRM’s convener for Delhi wing, said the organization will be vehemently raising the issue. “Triple talaaq is being denounced as an inhuman practice. The BJP has already seen electoral gains with Muslim women voting for the party in UP elections. The same strategy will be used for Delhi municipal polls too,” he said.
Unfortunately, even bodies like the Mulsim law personal board (MLPB), have not studied the issued of triple talaaq in the right perspective of the religion, said Jilan