Indian politician Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comments on triple talaq, Uniform Civil Code, and Pasmanda Muslims, stating that it seems the PM could not understand the advice of former US president Barack Obama. Obama warned in a recent interview that if ethnic minorities are not protected, there is a strong possibility of the country at some point starts pulling apart. Owaisi responded to Modi’s statement that the SC had called for the Uniform Civil Code to be implemented by questioning whether he would also end the Hindu Undivided Family, which costs the nation INR 3,064 crores per year.
Additionally, Owaisi accuses Modi of shedding crocodile tears for Pasmanda Muslims while allowing them to be attacked, having their mosques damaged and families killed through lynching, and their scholarships for education abolished by his government. Owaisi questioned Modi about his initiatives for Pasmanda Muslims’ exploitation and also asked why he is taking inspiration from Pakistan’s laws. The prime minister has banned triple talaq but the exploitation of women has only increased.
Modi hit out at opposition parties for appeasement policies and vote bank politics, stating that advocates of triple talaq do grave injustice to Muslim women. Owaisi, however, argued that social reform will not take place through legislation, and that laws should be made against men who abandon their wives after marriage instead of focusing on triple talaq.
