Usually quick to response on lucrative issues but choosing not to comment on an electorally sensitive subject like Supreme Court verdict on instant Triple Talaq Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tended to let her senior Cabinet colleague Siddiqullah Chowdhury to do the talking.
The belligerent Minister on Wednesday expressed his defiance for the order saying his organisation would not abide by the verdict as the apex court had no right to adjudicate on an issue exclusively Islamic in nature.
“The verdict is unconstitutional insofar as it goes against the secular fabric of the nation,” Chowdhury also the president of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind’s Bengal chapter said questioning Supreme Court’s “jurisdiction over issues which have once and for all been decided by the Shariat.”
He told a congregation of JUH supporters, “who has given the Supreme Court the right to decide on such cases which are exclusive to Islamic law,” adding “we (read his organisation) will never accept this verdict and will take all the necessary steps after meeting the intellectuals who are well versed on the subject.”
Going rather ballistic on those who advocated the ouster of Triple Talaq the Minister said “there are some people who feel pleasure in delving in to issues which are not their domain. But before doing so they should read the Shariat laws that have upheld the Triple Talaq.”
Curiously there was no official response from the Trinamool Congress to Chowdhury’s comments despite it tended to border contempt, experts said.
On what steps he or his organisation would take once the Apex Court had thrown the practice out as “unconstitutional” the State library Minister said “I don’t say the people will instantly descend on the street because that is not our way of doing things. But we will definitely raise the issue at different level and work on forming opinions gradually.”
India was a secular country he said adding, “the order itself negates the secular character of the constitution. If at all they have to throw out Triple Talaq then the BJP should first frame laws that would remove India’s secular character.” The JUH would sit with the ulemas in the coming days before preparing the strategy to counter the verdict, he maintained.