EDITORIAL

The bunch of muftis from the Darul Uloom, Deoband are hell-bent on frequently delivering embarrassments to the community. They seem to be ill-trained at best or insane at worst. The latest of the fatwas declaring validity of talaq (divorce) pronounced thrice on the cellphone—regardless of it being heard by the hapless wife or her witnesses—takes the debates on the questionable method of right of divorce for Muslim males to absurd depths. Only a fortnight ago, someone secured the Darul Uloom’s fatwa for the validity of a similarly facile pronouncement on Internet. These fatwas have emanated from the muftis of the most respected seminary of Islamic learning at the height of a raging debate on the controversial talaq provisions under the Hanafi jurisprudence.
Dissolution of marriage is no simple affair and has tangible social, biological, and economic consequences, besides the intangible moral and psychological ones. No sane mind would and should resort to a break of the marital ties in a flippant manner. The Quran lays down an elaborate procedure for dissolution of the marriage in the event of the ties between spouses suffering from adversities. It encompasses efforts from two sides for reconciliation and arbitration and pronouncement of three utterances with cooling off periods in between. Verses in this regard leave no one in doubt that God, the Almighty, exhorts his servants to approach this instrument of law with extreme care and caution. Couples are advised to invoke taqwa (piety) at each step and to eventually separate out if the marriage fails to work. It has been repeatedly brought to bear on the Hanafi jurists that the binding nature of talaq uttered thrice in a sitting is a travesty of the Quranic procedure. It has the effect of subjecting marriage to the most awkward interpretation of law in medieval period. Scope for its misuse by unscrupulous husbands—for instance, those bent upon forcible procurement of dowry in sub-continental context —too has been documented in great detail.
But it seems the clerics from Doeband have no nose for context or human temperament. Male chauvinism and patriarchy still dominate their perception of issues. Their approach bears no scope for reform and innovative interpretation. Gender related research and information is anathema for them.
It is now for the Muslim intellectuals to launch an initiative for debate and reform in talaq provisions as they exist in the current Muslim Personal Law.
One also wonders if the queries are being deliberately raised from quarters interested in keeping the clergy in adverse focus for media to poke fun.

It does not augur well for a mainstream political party to get tagged onto a minority community in a manner it has happened with Congress Party in Gujarat.  Civic polls results from the State paint a pathetic marginalisation of the party inasmuch as majority or a major chunk of its members in the civic bodies are now Muslims. In Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation 20 of 37 municipal councilors are Muslims. This is none too happy a picture of a political party which claims a pan-Indian presence and stakes in the political system. The successive elections in Gujarat have only seen increasing alienation of majority community from the Congress.  If indeed a party like the Congress, which at one time embodied the aspirations of the people of India and epitomized India’s diversity in all its spectral colours, has to subsist on Muslim votes to retain its presence even as an Opposition party, it is certainly a bad omen. Unmistakably, the party is suffering from some serious affliction that is leading to its severe marginalization.  It is bad both for a secular democracy like India and its minorities. Whatever the secularism may mean for all of us, the people at the helm must not lose the trust of the majority community who are the ultimate shapers of the policies. It is their aspirations that enable the parties to stay the course rather than the minorities’. Certainly, desserts cannot be savoured while ignoring the staple.
For over two decades, the Congress Party has failed to recover its lost position in key states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where combination of various social forces has seriously altered the power equations. Dalits, Minorities and communities categorized as intermediate social order in the Hindu caste hierarchies in these two states have left no scope for the Congress to shape a new strategy. Stranglehold of the rapacious developers’ lobby over government and party has seriously dented its image in Maharashtra. In Karnataka, the party refuses to reverse its fortunes despite serious charges of graft and horse-trading tainting the ruling BJP government. In Rajasthan the party’s government is afraid of safeguarding the minorities for fear of lending a handle to the BJP. Overall the party and its government present the picture of a club of facilitators working to ease things for MNCs and corporate mafia.  All kinds of offenders seek refuge and asylum within its fold. UPA-II has proved a major failure in containing prices, inflation, unemployment, farmers’ suicide et al which are more likely to decide the popular choices. Mega ventures like Commonwealth Games, seat in the Security Council, welcome for the US President and references to emerging economic power seem to be guiding the party and the government rather than grim situation on the prices front and rising tide of unemployment. Unless the portents from Gujarat civic elections are taken seriously, the party may lose the sense of direction.