Missed two opportunities, triple talaq bill your third chance: PM Modi to Congress

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday unleashed a stinging attack on the Congress's view on gender equality and took a dig at its policy of Muslim appeasement in his speech in Lok Sabha.
Reminding the Congress of two missed opportunities, PM Modi referred to the Uniform Civil Code and the Shah Bano case and urged the opposition party to support his government's efforts for women empowerment in the form of the bill against triple talaq.

"Congress has missed two opportunities on the issue of women empowerment. They first missed in 1950s when Uniform Civil Code was being debated and then after 35 years when Shah Bano case came up. Now is the third chance when they can support the Triple Talaq Bill," PM Modi said.
Taking a dig at Congress's appeasement of the Muslims, PM Modi reminded it of the "they can lie in a gutter" statement made by one of the party leaders in the context of the Shah Bano case.
The reference led to protests from the Congress benches.
PM Modi was perhaps referring to a recent remark by a Congress leader that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was opposed to overturning the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case, but was forced to do so by his advisors who had said that "it was not the job of the Congress party to reform the Muslims, if they want to lie in the gutter let them be."
The Triple Talaq Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha last week amid a huge uproar from the opposition parties, including the Congress, which are against criminalising the offence.
The opposition raised strong objections at the introduction of the Bill itself. After a brief discussion, the motion for tabling the bill was put to vote. As many as 186 members voted for the introduction of the Bill and 74 against.