Author: Muzaffar Hussain
Publication: The Organiser
Date: February 18, 2001
Bangladesh High Court has struck
down all fatwas made by the motley mullahs of the country. Now a man cannot
divorce his wife merely by repeating verbally talaq twice in the country.
The bench of Justice Ghulam Rubbani and Justice Najm Ara Sultana has issued
a warrant of arrest against Maulana Azizul Islam for dissolving the marriage
of a Muslim couple. The husband was annoyed with his wife in a family dispute
and impulsively divorced her by repeating talaq thrice. The Maulana is
absconding. But the administration has resolved to catch him. The bench
of the Bangladesh High, Court has declared as illegal all those fatwas
the mullahs and moulvis of the country have "promulgated" from time to
time. The court declares that the judiciary recognizes the' laws made by
the Parliament. It does not recognize any fatwa issued by a Muslim cleric.
It says there are many fatwas that act against the laws of the. land. That
interpretation of the Quran will be accepted by the court which stands
the test of the Constitution and the Parliament. The judiciary is authorized
to interpret the law, this authority can never be given to an Imam or a
maulana of any masjid.
The 'veteran lawyer Kamal 'Hussein
says that the parliament should formulate a new legal code after debating
over all the traditions, customs and social beliefs. And the new code should
be fashioned to suit the modem age. The injustice to the women cannot be
tolerated merely because a section of the society believes women to be
inferior.
The case that provoked the High
Court to strike down the fatwas, began eighteen months ago. Saifullah divorced
his wife Shabida by shouting talaq three times over a quarrel. The local
Maulana Azizul Islam certified the divorce. Shabida was against the talaq.
The Maulana and his five associates advised Shabida to marry another man
to get round the divorce. After she became a legal wife of the other ran
she might divorce him and eater about the four months of iddat she could
again marry Saifullah. But Shabida was unwilling. She challenged the dissolution
of her marriage in a court of law. The case went up to the High Court where
the judges decided in Shabida's favour and declared that the Maulanas have
no right to meddle with anybody's life by willfully issuing absurd fatwas.
The provision of fatwas in Islam is in the form of an expert opinion. It
is not necessary that the law of land and the courts of law should concern
with these fatwas. Only the courts have the authority, in the field of
law and constitution, of interpreting and giving an award. The court has
ordered the arrest and prosecution of the maulana and his five absconding
associates.
In spite of being an Islamic country,
Bangladesh has still a free democratic system of liberal institutions.
In October this year, the General Elections will be held there. The biggest
challenge to the ruling party of Hasina Wajida is from the opposition leader
Khalida Zia. The former President Gen. Irshad and Jamat-i-Islami have extended
support to Khalida Zia. Khalida Zia's husband Ziaur Rehman had come under
the influence of Jamaat-i-Islami and named the country 'Muslim Bangla'.
Pakistan has surreptitiously assisted the opposition parties against Hasina
Wajeda. Yet Hasina has continued the good work of her father Mujib-ur-Rehman.
Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken,
backward and very low literate country has surpassed all the other 53 Islamic
countries in democratic traditions and liberal ideas, though all these
countries are more prosperous. Bangladesh has 44.7 per cent of its population
living under the poverty line. The first American President to visit Bangladesh,
Bill Clinton had given 150 million dollars in aid to the country. Hasina
has set a target of 7 per cent increase in the gross domestic product by
2001.
Among her neighbours India has the
best of relations with Bangladesh, Hasina has widely treated India as a
friend and ally of Bangladesh. She has successfully solved the disputes
of Chatgaon hills and distribution of the waters of the rivers straddling
the two countries. She also worked hard to begin the bus travel between
Dhaka and Kolkata and and set a new trend in mutual relations. When India
was undivided, the territory today lying in Bangladesh was linked with
India by railway lines. But in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, the umbilical cord
was severed. Hasina is striving to restore it.
Religious fanatics and fundamentalists
are annoyed at Hasina because she has always tried to do justice to the
Hindus living in Bangladesh. Her government has decided to abolish the
act relating to the properties left behind by Hindus who fled to India
in 1947 at the time of Partition. When Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan
the government had got an act passed to enable it to confiscate these properties.
The Hindus in Bangladesh had been agitating for lifting this confiscation.
Hasina's party, the Awami League has included abolition of this act in
its election manifesto. Khalida Zia's Nationalist Party and other sectarian
parties had opposed this demand. Hasina's foresight has won her the hearts
of over 12 million Bangladeshi Hindus.
The corruption scandals of the Khalida
government are sprouting out everywhere like mushrooms. During her rule,
Khalida was said to have received three million US dollars in one transaction
of purchase of two airbuses. This has followed a plethora of scandals.
If the courts decide against her in the corruption cases, Khalida will
not be able to contest in the next elections Article 65 of Bangladesh Constitution
has reserved 15 seats for women in the legislature. But these 15 seats
also are not filled. In Bangladesh a popular demand is rising for increase
in the women's share in the country's ruling power. In comparison to Pakistan
and India, Bangladesh has made better performance in the field of family
planning. In Bangladesh religious prejudices are not allowed to come in
the working of the small family norm as it is the urgent national requirement.
Bangladesh has reduced its birth rate by 3. Hasina Wajed has opened 13,000
schools for girls, in a single record move.
The Muslim leaders even before Partition
had a plan of turning Assam into a Muslim majority province. Therefore
the infiltration of Bangladeshis into India has a pre-Partition history
and today this happens to be the core issue between the two neighbours.
The then Muslim leader Moluddin Chowdhary had told M.A. Jinnah, "Please
do not worry about Assam. Very soon we shall present Assam to you decked
on a silver salver." This came very near to completion when the population
of Muslims grew by leaps and bounds. Similar is the fate or West Bengal.
In eight districts or West Bengal on Indo-Bangla border the population
increased by 30 per cent in ten years between 1971 and 1981, while in other
districts the increase was less than 20 per cent. The number of infiltrators
in the decade 1961-71 was 17,29,310 which in the decade 1971-81 was 5,59,000.
Later it was discovered that over 6 lakh Bangladeshis had entered Bengal
during this period. Thus the influx was 11,59,000. But this usual is the
most conservative estimate. The popular experience in Bengal and Assam,
the State bearing the front of infiltration is that the figure should be
many times more.
The Bangladesh Government itself
has accepted the figure of legal immigrants from that country during this
period to be four lakh. The total figure of infiltrators to date has been
in the vicinity of a crore and a half. Over fifty per cent of these have
burrowed into the East Indian States. This is more owing to the Indian
government's negligence than owing to the immigrants' cunning. These Bangladeshis
are regularized as voters by surreptitiously giving them ration cards and
they in turn execute the quid pro quo by voting en masse for their political
sponsors. In the Mumbai metropolis, there is a constituency that has such
a bulk of illegal immigrants that they can make or mar any candidate's
prospects. India is in good terms with many Gulf countries that are also
'victims' of these Bangladeshi infiltrators. These countries in the Middle
East carry out annually a campaign to drive out these infiltrators. But
in India the coreligionists of the infiltrators help them in every way
from sheltering to introducing as voters.
Thus the members of the minority
aid and abet these infiltrators' political crimes. If these members of
the minority refrain from acting as accomplices in the Bangladeshi infiltration
the acute problem of Bangladeshi infiltration could be solved and thus
the main bone of contention between the two countries would vanish and
the two neighbours would become friends. Bangladesh has become an eyesore
for many orthodox, if not fanatic, Islamic nations for its progressive,
liberal and secular outlook. Therefore in order to maintain and spread
the environment of true secularism and liberalism it becomes the urgent
duty of India and other progressive nations to help Bangladesh in every
way to proceed on its path of progress.
