Talaq crusaders fight for survival

Kolkata: The Triple Talaq Bill has been a major poll plank of the BJP, with the party trying its best to woo a section of minorities with the legislation, even as those who had led the crusade against the practice continue to fight for their survival.

In its recently released manifesto for Lok Sabha polls, the saffron party, which failed to legislate the bill in Parliament due to stiff resistance by the opposition, has pledged to eliminate the practices of instant talaq and nikah halala if re-elected to power.

Vijaya Rahatkar, the national president of the party's Mahila Morcha, said the efforts of the Narendra Modi government to pass the Triple Talaq Bill “will surely yield positive results for the BJP” in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

Ironically, anti-triple talaq champions — Ishrat Jahan, Shayara Bano and Atiya Sabri — who had moved the Supreme Court to seek an end to the practice of instant divorce continue to live in abject poverty, with little or no means of income.

The court, in a landmark judgment in 2017, held the practice “void” and “unconstitutional”.

Divorced in April 2015, Ishrat Jahan lives with her two children in neighbouring Howrah district.

“I am struggling to make both ends meet. I don't have money to send my children to school. As of now, I depend on my relatives for financial assistance,” she told PTI.

Jahan had joined the BJP in 2018 and was initially expected to be one of the major minority faces of the party in Bengal. It was also speculated that she would figure in BJP's list of Lok Sabha candidates in the state.

“Things appear to have changed. I am not in touch with the party any more. At times I visit party meetings, but that's about it,” she said, when asked if the BJP leaders inquire about her.