UAPA & TRIPLE TALAQ BILLS: SDPI PRESIDENT M.K FAIZY CALLS UPON MPs TO DEFEAT IN RAJYA SABHA

NEW DELHI 29 JULY 2019: Social Democratic party of India, (SDPI), has written a letter to all the secular and non-BJP members of Rajya Sabha for active intervention to defeat the draconian and unconstitutional Triple Talaq Bill. The party has also urged them through another letter to defeat in Rajya Sabha the UAPA (Amendment) Bill 2019 which empowers the government to designate any person as a terrorist at its pleasure.

The letter addressed by SDPI national president M. K. Faizy on Triple Talaq says: “The issue of Triple Talaq has been disproportionately and incorrectly blown out by Modi government which is a glaring example to cite the ill-intention, political demagoguery and communal expediency of the BJP and its government to paint Muslims as unfit and inferior to modern values of civilization”. The letter goes on to state: “The stand of Modi government is totally unfounded and prejudicial as being against the stark reality that only 0.3 percent of Muslim women are found victims of spontaneous Triple Talaq numbering less than 3000. On the other hand about 23 lakh unfortunate and left uncared women in India have been abandoned by their husbands that preferably need legal arrangement for their well-being and social security for such abandoned women by enacting a special law. However, the Modi government has purposely picked up Triple Talaq issue to tarnish the image of Muslim community at large where every woman is more secured through “Nikah” that ensures  exceptionally inherent rights under the provision of “Mahar” (financial security) and Iddat (settling arrangements after divorce)”.

“Through the Triple Talaq Bill, the BJP is communalising the atmosphere of the country. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has already declared Triple Talaq illegal, so there is no need, at all, for special law to re-declare it illegal. Nikah, (marriage) as well-settled in law, is a social contract which has civil remedy for the termination like all social contracts but in case of Triple Talaq, the remedy is mischievously being unprecedented criminalized with three years sentence and conviction for an offence which has not taken place in view of pronouncement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The Modi government has incorrectly been citing mandate of the Hon’ble Supreme Court for need to enact a special law which is beyond the true facts”, the letter further states. Meanwhile, the letter on the UAPA (Amendment) Bill 2019, which has been passed by Lok Sabha on 24th July 2019, says: “After designation of an individual as terrorist, all his legal rights are to be taken away and he is to prove himself that he is not a terrorist. Once designated as terrorist, the name shall be published in Official Gazette without trial, he shall be treated like a convict even though he may not have committed any crime in his life but on account of the social background and political view, if he is designated as terrorist, he shall suffer all the ignobility as a criminal throughout his/her life”.   

“It is obvious that taking advantage of the huge majority in the Lok Sabha, the Modi government has tabled a number of amendments into existing laws including UAPA, NIA, RTI, Forest Act, etc. We have seen that in a very short period of time in a day, eight bills were tabled in Lok Sabha and some were hurriedly passed without affording an adequate chance for minute and detailed debates in the House. So, the authenticity of the process of the parliamentary system has been put to jeopardy and now there lies only hope in the Rajya Sabha where these autocratic and authoritarian moves challenging the very foundation of our democracy may be defeated”. “Without even having such a specific law for targeting an individual, a large number of innocent persons have already been booked under the provisions of UAPA in the past and now the government wants to give legal sanctity to authoritarian acts by amending the law, extending it to designate the individual as terrorist for invoking the provisions of UAPA. The Amendment has put another nail into federalism by making UAPA more stringent and further diluting the powers of the state in policing by conferring superior rights to NIA over the state police”, the letter points out.