Political circles smell a plot in govt 'tactics' on new marriage bill

The opposition parties may have theoretically received what they wanted on the contentious bill to raise the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years - referring the bill to a parliamentary standing committee for a closer scrutiny. But political circles feel the government was being tactical and is setting the stage for a larger political brewing of the proposed legislation, with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections and with an option to drum up the bill further during the budget session just before the polls.

The fact that the government has proposed to refer the bill to the House panel - amid opposition protests and demands - right in the Lok Sabha itself, where it has a very comfortable majority, means that the ruling side wasn't acting under pressure but on its own.

The fact that on the same day the government pushed through another important bill, linking Aadhaar to electoral roll, in the Rajya Sabha against numerically bigger opposition's demands for House panel scrutiny underscores how sending the marriage bill to parliamentary panel suited the ruling BJP: It advertises the government's intent to enact the legislation and, yet, keeps the process in motion and stirring.



The way PM Modi almost simultaneously took the issue to his election rally in UP on Tuesday leaves no one in doubt about the intended plank - of appealing to the larger women electoral segment - and the political plot of targeting the political/social opponents with different strokes.

The PM didn't elaborate on his intended target - the opposition parties or Muslim groups - when he said that "everyone is seeing who is having problems with this (bill)". But three days ago, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqi dubbed the critics as "professional protestors" with "Taliban mentality" and referred to how the same sections had opposed the scrapping of instant triple talaq. Many in the opposition know they have a double-edged sword to deal with, and yet compulsions to face it.

Therefore, the Congress and some others like the Left, DMK and NCP are cautious to focus their critique to the bill on the socio-gender disparity issues involved in it and to stress the need for further discussions with stakeholders, even as Priyanka Vadra claimed that her women empowerment talks forced the PM to bring the bill. While Congress ally IUML takes this bill as an affront on Muslim Personnel Laws, some SP MPs wonder why give women "too much independence", even as AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi makes his opposition louder before the gallery. When Congress and some others demanded that the bill be referred to the House panel, the IUML and AIMIM opposed its instruction itself. All sides are watching whether the opposing Muslim groups will now get shriller or be restrained.

As major opposition parties want to focus on farmers' issue, Lakhimpur and other livelihood issues in state polls, they also sense the need to brace for a parallel discourse being brewed on the move to raise the marriageable age of women.