Kerala Governor says Pinarayi's attack on Triple Talaq Bill a love song for Muslim League

After a lull, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has torn into Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Khan said that the Chief Minister's criticism of the Triple Talaq Act was part of the CPM's attempt to engineer a political realignment in Kerala, an indirect reference to the CPM's reported moves to woo the Muslim League to the LDF fold.

In an interview given to a national channel late on Wednesday, Governor Khan said that the CPM was dumping progressive ideals that it had once held dear to attract "a particular political outfit", a clear reference to the League. He said he had read in "Kerala papers" that such overtures were being made.

While flagging off the People's Resistance March led by CPM state secretary M V Govindan on February 20, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wondered why only Muslim divorces were criminalised.

"While divorces take place in all religions, it is only the Triple Talaq that was criminalised. Why is it a criminal offence for Muslims alone? All other divorce cases are seen as a civil matter in court," the Chief Minister said.

Khan said that by attacking the Triple Talaq Bill, the CPM was in effect assuring the League that it would also oppose any attempts to introduce Uniform Civil Code.

The left had historically been pleading for Uniform Civil Code, Khan said. He said when he had first raised the issue in 1986, it was the CPM stalwart E M S Namboodirippad who had come out strongly in support of him.

Khan argued that the only reason to attack a law passed three years ago (the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act was passed in 2019) was to assure the political outfit of a "particular persuasion" that its personal laws would also be protected. "EMS would now be turning in his grave," Governor Khan said.

Khan also said that the Chief Minister's critique of the Triple Talaq Bill was born out of his ignorance of Muslim jurisprudence. He said that there was no mention of the practice in the Quran.

Khan said that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board itself, in an affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court, had said that the triple talaq was wrongful and derogatory to the dignity of women.

Further, he said triple talaq, unlike ordinary divorces that come under civil law, was historically treated as a criminal act by the Muslim community. He said the practice was given legal sanction during the time of the second caliph Hazrat Umar.

To stress the point that it was considered criminal even then, he said: "Even the first person who pronounced instant triple talaq was subjected to 40 lashings by the caliph."

He differentiated triple talaq and normal divorce by giving the example of a property dispute. "A fight over land is a civil matter but if one person takes the law into his hands and physically injures the other person then it ceases to be a civil dispute. It becomes criminal," he said. Triple talaq, he said, was a kind of violent practice that should be considered a graver offence than a mere civil matter.

Still, compared to the 40 brutal lashings decreed by the second caliph, Khan said the Centre's anti-triple talaq bill was "humane".

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, or Triple Talaq Bill provides for imprisonment for a term of up to 3 years and a fine to the husband who practiced instant Triple Talaq. For desertions by non-Muslim husbands, an issue adjudged as a civil suit, the penalty is one-year imprisonment and a fine.