Moving closer to making instant triple talaq a criminal offence, the Lok Sabha passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage), Bill. All amendments to the bill were defeated. The bill has provision for jail up to three years for the husband.
However, questions were raised in the Lok Sabha, in a heated debate, on the constitutional validity of the proposed legislation. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab strongly opposed the bill, saying it “lacked legislative coherence" and was “conflicting with existing legal provisions". The government said it was moving the bill as it had received 66 complaints of men resorting to the practice of instant divorce despite the Supreme Court declaring it ‘void’. So why did the bill create so much controversy? We decode it for you.
“Should the Muslim women frame and hang the SC verdict in their homes now?" asked Ravi Shankar Prasad. MJ Akbar said that the “atmosphere of fear must be removed surrounding the Muslim women". Here are the key points made my members of the Lok Sabha that defined the Triple Talaq debate.
When speaker Sumitra Mahajan called out all MPs to speak at the time of the introduction of the Bill by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, all those who had given a notice objecting to the introduction were given an opportunity to speak. Congress MPs were on their feet, but none got a chance to go on record because no notice had come from the Congress party. For a party signed by the Shah Bano Case during Rajiv Gandhi government, Congress is being extra cautious. It was an unknown case in the overburdened courts that sprang out to acquire large political overtones that ultimately gave enough leeway to both the BJP and other regional players to grab a large section of loyal Congress voters.
There are exactly 33 words that defined the triple talaq hearings in the Supreme Court. What are they? What do they mean? Find out here. In other news, at least 14 people were killed and 12 persons injured after a major fire in a building in Kamala Mills Compound in Lower Parel. The fire broke out shortly after midnight on the third floor of the four-storied building on Senapati Bapat Marg, a commercial hub of the city.
Pakistan, yet again, defended imposing harsh security procedures during the meeting of death row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav with his wife and mother, which it claimed had been bilaterally agreed with India. Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif rejected Indian allegations and stated that the meeting of Jadhav with his wife and mother on December 25 was permitted on humanitarian grounds.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, while addressing the Parliament, said that Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav thought something 'bad" had happened back home when he saw his mother without a bindi and 'mangal sutra' when they met in Islamabad. Swaraj said the removal of the 'mangal sutra' was a height of disrespect as Jadhav's mother had told the Pakistani officials that it was a symbol of marriage, but they did not relent.
Former President Barack Obama remains the most admired man and woman in the United States — a 10-year trend for Obama and 16 years running for Clinton. President Donald Trump took the second spot.
India’s largest software company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is facing a legal trial in the US over allegations of being biased against American workers. According to a Bloomberg report, TCS’ request to dismiss a 2015 lawsuit that accused it of violating anti-discrimination laws by favouring South Asian workers was rejected by a federal judge in California. The federal judge expanded the case filed by American workers who lost their jobs at TCS offices in the US into a class-action suit, adding to the worries of the IT giant. Agree or disagree?
The last three years have probably been the toughest for Congress since the formation of the party on December 28, 1885. It has been 133 years. The grand old party, though, has been much more confident of upsetting the ruling party, ever since it took the sting out of BJP’s war cry of a ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ (Congress Free India) in its former’s den in Gujarat. The Congress has to pass three litmus tests before it can claim that Gujarat was no flash in the pan. More on it, here. On reel
How Indore became a role model of cleanliness. Watch it here.
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