The Narendra Modi government managed to pass the bill to ban instant Triple Talaq in the opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha. It was helped by a number of absentees, abstentions, and walkouts. What was bizarre was that among the people who abstained were two lawmakers from Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party. The bill was passed with 99 votes in its favour and 84 against.
Mehbooba Mufti, without explaining the reason for the abstention of her lawmakers tweeted that the bill is for punishing Muslims.
“Fail to understand the need to pass the triple talaq bill especially since the Supreme Court had already declared it illegal. Undue interference seemingly to punish Muslims. Given the current state of the economy, should this really have been a priority?” she tweeted.
But, National Conference’s Omar Abdullah was not going to let that go and pointed out that their absence from voting helped the government get the sufficient numbers they wanted.
Mehbooba Mufti ji, you might want to check how your members voted on this bill before tweeting. I understand they abstained which helped the government with the numbers needed to pass the bill. You can’t help the government & then “fail to understand need to pass”! he tweeted.
The war of words continued as Mufti asked Mr Abdullah to “get off his moral high horse” since his party had expelled Saifuddin Soz for voting against the BJP in the 1999 trust vote.
“Omar sahab, I suggest you get off your moral high horse since it was your own party that expelled Soz sahab for voting against the BJP in 1999. FYI in parliament, abstention is essentially a no vote,”said Mufti.
Omar Abdullah reminded Mufti that the abstention helped BJP this tiime and that an abstention is not a no vote.
“Madam, is recounting an incident from TWENTY years ago the best you can do to defend PDP duplicity? So you are accepting you instructed your MPs to abstain. And no an abstention is NOT a no vote, a no vote is a no vote. An abstention helped the BJP this time,” Mr Abdullah tweeted.
Post Your Comments