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In poll-bound UP, Nadda talks women’s safety, triple talaq
Uttar Pradesh assembly election 2022: At a voters’ meet in Etawah, BJP chief JP Nadda reminded the audience how the BJP kept its pre-poll promise on abolishing the instant triple talaq divorce law and on Ram temple in Ayodhya. He also said it ensured the safety of women.
LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda drew an interesting comparison between elections and family background checks that people make ahead of fixing marriages.
Addressing the ‘prabhavi matdata sammelan’ (meeting of influential voters) in Etawah, considered a stronghold of the opposition Samajwadi Party, Nadda urged the voters to check on the past record of political parties before casting their votes.
“Remember, people check about the background of a family before deciding whether they can enter into a relationship with it. Similarly, one should also undertake background checks of political parties, see whether they delivered on their poll promises in the past before casting their vote,” Nadda said while reminding the audience how the BJP kept its pre-poll promise on abolishing the instant triple talaq divorce law and on Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“We had promised to save Muslim women from getting exploited and we fulfilled it. We had a commitment on the Ayodhya temple and that too is being fulfilled. Unlike those who apply ‘tilak’ only during elections, we have always delivered on our promises,” Nadda said, pitching the BJP as the party that valued its commitment.
While nearly all BJP leaders are flagging temple in their speeches, Nadda’s pitch on Muslim women attracted attention as it coincided with a directive chief minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier given to BJP’s women wing in UP to connect with such Muslim women who benefitted due to BJP’s decision to scrap the instant divorce law.
The triple talaq divorce issue was first flagged by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public meeting in Mahoba, Bundelkhand in 2016, just ahead of the 2017 UP polls and in July 2019, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill became a law, providing for punishment, including jail term, for the husband accused of instantly divorcing his wife.
“Akhilesh ji merely talks about development while engaging in appeasement. The BJP opposes appeasement but works for all. We said we would act against criminals and you must have seen that it was done in UP,” he said.
“Do you remember how bad things were before 2017, when our daughters were unable to go to school? No one knew if they would return home safe. Today, the scenario under BJP government has changed drastically,” Nadda said.
This line is being taken by most BJP leaders in west UP, from where the seven-phased UP polls start from February 10. The BJP has so far declared 295 candidates in UP, 37 of them women. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had first launched a women-centric poll campaign themed ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon (I am a woman, will accept any challenge)’ but since then the BJP has stepped up the ante, pitching itself as a party which women trust.
BJP leader and union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur had recently campaigned in Lucknow with face of the Congress’ ‘ladki hoon’ campaign - Priyanka Maurya, Aparna Yadav, the sister-in-law of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and former Congress lawmaker Aditi Singh - to make a point about BJP being the party women trust.
Back then, Aparna Yadav was seen carrying a placard that talked about safety of ‘beti, bahu (daughter, daughter in law).’
Nadda’s women pitch in Etawah - he also campaigned in Bareilly and Auraiya - reflected a BJP plan to weave a similar narrative in SP’s bastion. “The plan appears to be two-fold: to edge closer to Muslim women and thereby attempt at dividing the community’s vote while playing up the fact about how the BJP has been working for the larger cause of women safety,” said Irshad Ilmi, a political observer who added that by making the women-centric pitch in SP’s stronghold, the BJP chief deftly played on the comparison between the two parties.
