Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Tuesday hit out at the opposition parties and asked them to reveal their stands on the ongoing debate about the Uniform Civil Code and triple talaq, The Times of India reported. “Women's rights are no less important than development and law and order. The PM has made his stand clear on triple talaq,” he said.
His jibe was directed at the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. “We are not afraid of speaking our mind, but these parties [SP, BSP and the Congress] should come clean on the sensitive issue by submitting affidavits in the Supreme Court," he said while addressing an election rally in Robertsganj township of Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh. He was there to flag off the third phase of BJP's Parivartan Yatra. The state is going for Assembly polls in 2017.
The Supreme Court is examining the validity of the practise and had asked the government to respond to a batch of petitions on the rights of Muslim women that challenged triple talaq. The government had on October 7 told the apex court that the "validity of triple talaq and polygamy should be seen in light of gender justice". Several Muslim bodies, including the Jamaat-e-Islamic Hind criticised the Centre's stand as a violation of citizens’ right to freedom of religion.
Campaigning for the upcoming state elections, Shah said that if the saffron party was voted to power in the state, it would immediately take action against those who had illegally grabbed land. “Within one month all land grabbed by goons of the SP will be returned to their rightful owners," he said.
The BJP chief said the Centre had given an extra fund of Rs 1 lakh crore to the state, however, the government has yet to reveal what it did with the money. "He [Akhilesh Yadav] should tell where this additional money has been spent in two and a half years of SP rule," Shah said. He also asked for the chief minister's resignation as he reminded the voters that Yadav had said that “Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal can't be merged with SP till the time he is CM”. The party leadership announced the merger in October.
Shah targeted Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi about his recent protests against the delay int he implementation of the one rank one pension scheme. “Before politicizing these two issues, Rahul should know that OROP had been lingering since the regime of late PM Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh government never took any action on ceasefire violations by Pakistan," he said.
Attacking BSP chief Mayawati, Shah said, "Scams of over Rs 2 lakh crores took place in the regime of Mayawati in the state. She should start an industry to make money instead of staying in politics with the sole motive of making wealth," he said.
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