JOIN USSenior Uttar Pradesh Minister Swami Prasad Maurya kicked up a row after he remarked that Muslims resort to triple talaq to “satisfy their lust”.
“Apni havas puri karne ke liye patniya badalte hain” (to satisfy their lust they change wives), Maurya said, speaking to reporters in Basti town, about 200 km from here, on Friday evening.
“They (Muslims) leave their wives and children to beg on the streets. No one will approve of such things,” the BJP leader added.
He said the BJP is committed to supporting Muslim women on the issue of triple talaq. Maurya’s remarks evoked sharp reactions from Muslim leaders.
All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board chairperson Shaista Amber demanded that Maurya be sacked from the Cabinet. “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath should sack Maurya and send him to some psychiatry centre for treatment,” Shaista said.
Senior SP leader Azam Khan also lashed out at Maurya and said the remarks were reflective of his “cheap mentality”.
State BJP leaders sought to distance themselves from Maurya’s remarks on triple talaq and said it was not the official stand of the saffron party.
“Our stand is clear. We are against this practice and we are with our Muslim sisters,” a senior state BJP leader said here on Saturday.
Congress lashes out at BJP
With the prime minister urging an end to politicisation of the triple talaq issue, the Congress on Saturday asked BJP to stop creating a vote bank by dividing Muslim women and their husbands, DHNS reports from New Delhi.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad accused the BJP of politicising the issue by frequently raising it, at a time when educated Muslims are thinking of reforms. Azad also rejected claims that triple talaq was a common practice and said that it was against Islam and the Quran.
Azad, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said no Muslim believes in triple talaq and the practice is adhered to as per the holy book in which certain norms and time-frame have been laid.