Slamming the Congress for its promise to withdraw the Triple Talaq Bill, Union Minister Arun Jaitley recalled how Rajiv Gandhi, by overturning the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano judgment, “allowed deserted women to be driven to poverty and destitution”.

In a blog posted on Friday, parts of which were also shared on Twitter, Jaitley said that the Congress’ ‘promise’ is a “retrograde step”.

Referring to a case in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where a Muslim woman was twice divorced by her husband through Triple Talaq and had to undergo nikah-halala, Jaitley said, “When human conscience should have been repelled while reading this news in the morning Newspapers, the AICC President Rahul Gandhi and his coterie, while addressing a minority convention, promised to withdraw the Bill pending in the Parliament.”

“The late Rajiv Gandhi committed a monumental mistake in legislatively overturning the Shah Bano judgement of the Supreme Court which guaranteed maintenance to all Muslim women. He allowed deserted women to be driven to poverty and destitution,” Jaitley said.

“History has repeated itself, neither as a satire nor as a tragedy. It has repeated itself with a mindset of cruelty,” he added referring to the Congress’ announcement.

Detailing the case, Jaitley said that the “obnoxious practice of Nikah-halala in Islamic personal law” has shocked his conscience.

“A lady who is married in 2009 was twice divorced by her husband through Triple Talaq, once in 2011 and subsequently in 2017. On both occasions, she was sedated and asked to undergo, Nikah-halala, on the first occasion with her father-in-law and on the subsequent occasion with her brother-in-law. They both raped her,” he wrote.

Counting the incident among those that are “unconscionable and repulsive that they shake the conscience of the society”, he said that the Supreme Court has already declared instant talaq as unconstitutional.

“And yet in the absence of a deterrent it can at best amount to a civil wrong with no penal consequences. A number of Muslim men and conservatives are choosing to even ignore the Supreme Court judgment,” he said.

Underlining the social reforms which other communities underwent in the last several years, Jaitley said that the object and direction of the changes has been that gender equality is ensured, rights of women and children are protected and the right to live with dignity is ensured.

Hitting out at the Congress, the senior BJP leader said, “Votes are important, so is fairness. Political opportunists only look at the next day’s Headlines. Nation-builders look at the next Century.”

Jaitley’s strong remarks come a day after Sushmita Dev, Congress women wing chief, promised that the party will scrap the law banning Triple Talaq if it comes to power in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

While addressing the party’s Minority Department convention, she reportedly alleged that the proposed law is a “weapon used by BJP against Muslim men so that they could be harassed by the police”.

The Bill which proposes a three-year-jail term for the husband who gives triple talaq has been criticised by the Congress and other opposition parties.