Mamata Banerjee stays mum on triple talaq bill

New Delhi: As the Lok Sabha passed a bill banning Triple Talaq and making it a criminal offence, the Trinamul Congress was conspicuous by its decision not to participate in the discussion preceding the passage of the “historic” legislation.

However, the reasoning behind the decision was not clear. When contacted, senior party leader and Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Saugata Roy said: “It was a party decision”.

The Trinamul Congress has 37 MPs in the Lok Sabha and is entitled to a  substantial amount of time in the party-wise debate list. The party was not present in the house during voting.

The Bill banning Triple Talaq was extensive debated before being passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

It might be noted that the TMC is the ruling party in West Bengal which has a sizeable Muslim population and party supremo and state chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been accused of cultivating the Muslims as a vote bank by rival BJP.

While some sources claimed that the decision was taken by Ms Banerjee after law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called her last week and asked for support, other maintained that it was the sudden decision.