Mullahs’ call for child marriage has political goal
The call by some Muslim organisations in Kerala to lower the marriageable age of Muslim girls from the legally defined 18 years, negating the value and validity of all the historic struggles to end child marriage, has set off a socio-political storm in the State. The mullahs' move is to approach the Supreme Court with a plea to exempt the Muslim community from the provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, with regard to girls' marriageable age.
The most dangerous aspect of this move is that they are asking for a different law for Muslims in a country that is ruled by laws with universal application, just as they have resisted the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code for the Muslim community. The mullahs claim that Sharia’h, the Muslim personal law, does not fix any minimum age for marriage of girls, an argument rejected by most Muslim youth, women and student outfits and Muslim intellectuals. But the clerics are determined to go ahead with their plan because they are emboldened by the silent but total support they are getting from the Muslim league, the second biggest party in the Congress-led ruling UDF in the State.
It is obvious that the call for lowering the marriageable age for Muslim girls could not have sprung from the ‘innocent’ conservatism (as some want to put it) of the mullahs alone, but it is part of a well-thought out plan for communal polarisation and consolidation of community votes, drawn up reportedly by the Muslim league. The clue lies in the timing. The call has come when the Congress in the State is shell-shocked by the changes that have occurred in the electorate since the coronation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. The Congress is aware of the popularity of Mr Modi among the secular middle class voters of Kerala, who have always shown great interest in his development policy and its implementation as seen in Gujarat. The Muslim league and such other ‘secular’ outfits are desperate to counter Mr Modi’s appeal.
In such a situation, the Congress, whose credibility is already hit hard by scams and misgovernance, and the UDF, would need a sharp tool to survive the coming lok Sabha election; the Muslim league believes that consolidation of community votes is one solution. The call for legalisation of child marriage, which the league hopes would directly lead to its objective, has come from Muslim clerics. The Muslim league had unsuccessfully tried this strategy recently through the Social Welfare Department it is ruling, by issuing a circular aimed at legalising marriages of under-age Muslim girls. It is not unnatural for political parties to engage in petty games during poll time. But what is now at play is a very dangerous game that seeks to push girls of one community into a hell-like life, divide society on communal lines for electoral gains and to create two kinds of citizens, laws and rights in the country.