'Triple talaq matter of Muslims, leave it to them, they will decide,' Ghulam Nabi Azad tells PM

PATNA: Senior Congress functionary and the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to interfere in the matter of triple talaq and concentrate on only those issues for which he got mandate from the people.
“Triple talaq is a matter of Muslim minorities, leave it to them, they will decide,” Azad said while disclosing his party’s stand on the controversial issue.Azad was addressing a joint convention of Dalits and Muslim minorities at SK Memorial hall here. Christened as ‘Dalit and Alpsankhayak Mahasammelan’ the convention was convened by the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) with an aim to bring back Dalits and Muslims, who constitute 16% and 18% respectively of the state’s population, towards the party’s fold.
Addressing the leading representatives from Dalit and Muslim communities in the jam-packed hall, Azad further said that the BJP and the RSS wanted to create a divide in the society by spreading hatred between Hindu and Muslim on the issue of Uniform civil code (UCC).
“They (BJP and RSS) want to make members of Muslim community fight with each other on the issue of triple talaq. Similarly, they want members of Hindu and Muslim communities fight with each other on the matter of UCC. They have virtually taken control on majority of TV channels. Most of the TV channels are these days organising debates only on issues like triple talaq and UCC. Such debates are being organised not as a part of ‘hamdardi’ (sympathy) towards Muslim community, but these debates are part of their well-thought ‘scheme’ to create hatred between members of the two communities with an aim to polarise the country on communal line,” Azad said.
Azad also said that the BJP and RSS wanted to create divide in the society so that peoples’ attention could be easily diverted from real issues like unprecedented price-rise, unemployment and poverty. He further called upon the members of Dalit and Muslim communities to be alert from such nefarious bid of communal forces and continue to strengthen the hands of Congress.
BPCC president Ashok Choudhary, who presided over the first-ever joint convention of Dalits and Muslims, in his address, highlighted the works done by the Congress for development and progress of the communities.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) general secretary Maulana Mohammad Wali Rahmani asked the Congress functionaries, especially those who had arrived from New Delhi, to avoid ‘touch and leave’ policy on the issues of triple talaq and take a ‘strong stand’ in favour of religious law of Muslims, otherwise the party would not going to be revived in the coming years.
Rahmani also quipped as to how a Muslim woman of Delhi, who had hardly any known source of high income, has been engaging lawyers at the rate of Rs 3 and 4 lakh a day, for contesting the triple talaq case. “Such people have been projected by the forces opposed to Muslims,” he said.
Congress general secretaries Shakil Ahmed and CP Joshi, Bihar ministers Awadesh Kumar Singh and Abdul jalil Mastan and several party legislators also addressed the convention.