Centre's affidavit on triple talaq a joke: Asad

HYDERABAD: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday criticised the Centre for what he claimed was its move to compare India and Indian Muslims with Pakistan even as he tore into its filing of an affidavit in the Supreme Court on oral triple talaq and polygamy.
Addressing a packed gathering at party headquarters in Darussalaam late on Wednesday night, Owaisi lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and described the affidavit, which compares Muslim marriage practices in India and other Muslim countries, as a “joke“.He was accompanied by more than 20 Muslim scholars and religious figures cutting across sects and schools of thought.
“Associating democracy with Pakistan is abusing democracy itself. Pakistan is not a functional democracy, Mr Modi. Pakistan has wronged you and yet you give us the example of Pakistan,“ he said.
The Hyderabad parliamentarian sought to say that the Centre's mentioning of some countries in the affidavit to make a case against polygamy was a flawed action. “Bangladesh was carved out from us and yet you are showing this as an example? Despite the presence of US in Afghanistan, there is no peace there. Morocco is a monarchy, a kingdom,“ he said. Tunisia, he said, became a democracy only recently even as he added that Iran is a “different kind of democracy“.
“Why are you insulting India? India is bigger and more progressive than Pakistan. Who has given you the right to compare proud Muslims of India with these countries? Indian Muslims are better than all of those countries,“ Owaisi said. The Muslim countries which the Centre has quoted in the affidavit permit bigamy , he added.Quoting a study of National Family Health Survey , Owaisi said that bigamy is practised by both Hindus and Muslims. “It is a lie that only Muslims are bigamous. But there is a difference.. if Muslims marry for a second time, the woman is treated as a wife and not as a concubine,“ he said.
Owaisi said that on the one hand the Centre, in the affidavit, says that the state has no religion, but on the other the PM raises “religious slogans“ on Dasara. “What if a bearded skull cap-wearing Muslim were elected as PM and he raised the slogan of “Naara-e-Takbeer, Allahu Akbar“, he said, adding that “there would be claims that he is trying to Talibanise the country . There would be outrage,“ he said.
The MIM leader criticised Union minister Arun Jaitley for reportedly saying that the Hindu Undivided Family tax rebate will continue after the introduction of a Uniform Civil Code.