Shah Bano case: Arif Mohd Khan gives clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi, says Modi can't take credit for talaq order

By A Representative
In an usual defence of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Arif Mohammad Khan, the UP politician who quit the Rajiv Cabinet in 1986 over its stance on the Shah Bano case, has said that he does not "believe that Rajiv Gandhi took the decision to overturn the Supreme Court verdict" on the case "on his own."
Khan, who joined the BJP in 2004 but quit the party "on being ignored" in 2007, has said in an interview that Rajiv "had a modern mind and was averse to obscurantism", underlining, "I have, in fact, seen Rajiv Gandhi’s noting on the file, in which he had clearly written that 'there should be no compromise with obscurantist and fundamentalist elements'."
Khan says, Rajiv, in fact, was "pressurised" to bring in a law to overturn the Shah Bano judgment, which had sought to favour maintenance to an aggrieved divorced Muslim woman. The law, the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, offered her a monthly maintenance of mere Rs 179.20 to 68-year-old divorcee Shah Bano.
The most important aspect of the new law was the right to maintenance for the period of iddat (the period a couple is supposed to stay together before final separation) after the divorce, and shifting the onus of maintaining her to her relatives or the Wakf Board. It was seen as discriminatory as it denied right to basic maintenance available to non-Muslim women.
According to Khan, the pressure in an election year came from "the likes of PV Narasimha Rao, Arjun Singh and ND Tewari, then ministers in the government", adding, "They were of the opinion that it was not the job of the Congress party to reform Muslims; 'if they want to lie in the gutter let them be'."
Recalling that the pressure came against the backdrop of "the communal poison" injected by "the aggressive and abusive language used by leaders like the Shahi Imam of Delhi", Khan said, the Imam "threatened to break the legs of those Muslim MPs who were opposed to the Rajiv Gandhi government’s decision to overturn the Shah Bano verdict."

Arif Moham,ad Khana

Pointing out this "vitiated the atmosphere and led to a tremendous backlash", and to balance it, "they ordered the unlocking of the Babri masjid", Khan added, "The constant appeasement of obscurantist and hardline elements has done more harm to Hindu-Muslim relations than anything else."
Khan, 66, who currently is involved in writing work, and runs Samarpan, an NGO for physically challenged people, calls the five-judge Supreme Court bench judgment of August 22, 2017 nullifying instant talaq "historic", which will have "far-reaching consequences", empowering and emboldening women "not just Muslim women but women across religions".
"Muslim women used to grow up with the sword of rejection and humiliation hanging over their heads. They used to be at the mercy of their husbands, who could, with the aid of the mullahs (clerics) get away with abandoning them at will, but that will no longer happen", he believes.
However, Khan refuses to give credit of the judgment to the Modi government or the BJP, pointing out, "It’s not right to look at it (the judgement) as a victory for the government or a political party. In fact, the first government affidavit on this issue was a very weak one, where the government said it would talk to everybody and then take a position."
He emphasizes, "It was only after the Supreme Court pointed out that their position was at variance with their stated position that Mukul Rohatgi (then attorney general) filed a second affidavit."
On the issue of coming up with a uniform civil code, Khan says, "In a secular democracy, laws are meant to be uniform, where all citizens have equal rights and obligations. It also means that neither will laws prohibit people from following their religious practices nor will the state force everybody to follow a particular practice."
He adds, "A uniform civil code can only come through consultations. It does not mean that people of different religions will have to perform marriages in a particular manner." Quoting Guru Gowalkar, founder of RSS, he says, it has to "take into consideration the sensitivities and diversity of India."
According to him, "The Hindu code bill is not product of the shastras (scriptures), it has borrowed from different religions. For instance, a daughter’s share in property and meher (a mandatory payment) have been adopted from Muslim law. While the provisions of the Hindu code bill are also applicable to Jains and Christians, they retain their identities."

Comments

US-China truce temporary, larger trade war between two economies to continue

By Prabir Purkayastha The Trump-Xi meeting in Busan, South Korea on 30 October 2025 may have brought about a temporary relief in the US-China trade war. But unless we see the fine print of the agreement, it is difficult to assess whether this is a temporary truce or the beginning of a real rapprochement between the two nations. The jury is still out on that one and we will wait for a better understanding of what has really been achieved in Busan.

When growth shrinks people: Capitalism and the biological decline of the U.S. population

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* Critically acclaimed Hungarian-American economic historian and distinguished scholar of economic anthropometric history, Prof. John Komlos (Professor Emeritus, University of Munich), who pioneered the study of the history of human height and weight, has published an article titled “The Decline in the Physical Stature of the U.S. Population Parallels the Diminution in the Rate of Increase in Life Expectancy” on October 31, 2025, in the forthcoming issue of Social Science & Medicine (SSM) – Population Health, Volume 32, December 2025. The findings of the article present a damning critique of the barbaric nature of capitalism and its detrimental impact on human health, highlighting that the average height of Americans began to decline during the era of free-market capitalism. The study draws on an analysis of 17 surveys from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (...

Is vaccine the Voldemort of modern medicine to be left undiscussed, unscrutinised?

By Deepika* Sridhar Vembu of Zoho stirred up an internet storm by tweeting about the possible link of autism to the growing number of vaccines given to children in India . He had only asked the parents to analyse the connection but doctors, so called public health experts vehemently started opposing Vembu's claims, labeling them "dangerous misinformation" that could erode “vaccine trust”!

Justice for Zubeen Garg: Fans persist as investigations continue in India and Singapore

By Nava Thakuria* Even a month after the death of Assam’s cultural icon Zubeen Garg in Singapore under mysterious circumstances, thousands of his fans and admirers across eastern India continue their campaign for “ JusticeForZubeenGarg .” A large digital campaign has gained momentum, with over two million social media users from around the world demanding legal action against those allegedly responsible. Although the Assam government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has arrested seven people, and a judicial commission headed by Justice Soumitra Saikia of the Gauhati High Court to oversee the probe, public pressure for justice remains strong.

Govt claims about 'revolutionary' rice varieties raise eyebrows: SC order reserved since Jan '24

By Rosamma Thomas * In a matter of grave importance for agriculture, public health awaits Supreme Court ruling, even as top Government of India bureaucrats stand accused of “willful and deliberate disobedience” of the top court. While a contempt petition filed by Aruna Rodrigues , lead petitioner in the Genetic Modification (GM) of crops matter remains pending in the Supreme Court since July 2025, the Union ministry of agriculture asserts that two home-grown gene edited rice varieties are of superior quality, and hold potential for “revolutionary changes in higher production, climate adaptability, and water conservation.” In May 2025, the Press Information Bureau released a press release stating that a “historic milestone” had been reached, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ; the new varieties, DRR Rice 100 (Kamla) and Pusa DST Rice 1 , the press release stated, offer both benefits – increased production and environmental conservation.

Banks, investors pour $52 billion into metallurgical coal expansion despite global climate pledges

By A Representative A new report by the German environmental and human rights NGO Urgewald has revealed that banks and institutional investors have poured nearly $52 billion into the expansion of metallurgical coal, or “met coal,” despite global commitments to phase out coal financing. Between 2022 and 2024, banks provided $21.96 billion in loans and underwriting to met coal developers, while investors held $30.23 billion in securities of companies expanding coal mining operations. The report, Still Burning: How Banks and Investors Fuel Met Coal Expansion, warns that loopholes in coal exit policies have allowed continued support for coal used in steelmaking — a sector responsible for about 11% of global CO₂ emissions.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Neglected dimension: Important linkages of social relationships, values to climate change

By Bharat Dogra A very important but neglected dimension of the efforts to resolve climate change and related serious environmental problems concerns the social values and relationships among people. To bring out the significance of this neglected aspect let us examine the response of two different types of societies. First, let us try to compare a society in which family and community ties are strong and close with another society where these are weak, where there is strong individualism and a very high number of single person households or units. In the first society there is more sharing of resources and facilities, so that this society tends to consume less (to meet needs such as housing and various gadgets). In addition there is much greater possibility in the first society to mobilize people for tasks like greening of community places or even household spaces. When it comes to tasks relating to climate change adaptation, it is the societies with close social relationships wh...

Bihar election: Democracy running away from people’s issues, politics thriving on fake agendas

By Sunil Kumar* Bihar’s political climate is currently heating up. Since the British colonial era, the state has remained trapped in a haze between labour struggles and uneven development, where basic issues such as unemployment, the plight of migrant workers, education, health, agrarian crisis, and corruption are constantly pushed to the background. In their place, absurd debates around “infiltrators,” “Operation Sindoor,” “Article 370,” “pistols,” “burqas,” and nicknames like “Pappu, Tappu, Appu” dominate the discourse.

Search This Blog