Sonia Gandhi says she was “agitated” by what she read in newspapers and magazine articles on the Shah Bano case, a legal case concerning the rights of a Muslim divorcee, and she “argued” with and “questioned” her husband on it.
The then Rajiv Gandhi government passed the Muslim Women (Protection on Divorce) Act, 1986, essentially overturning the Supreme Court verdict.
The BJP predictably accused the government of indulging in “vote-bank politics”, while progressive liberal opinion viewed the decision as a capitulation to the conservative elements of Muslim society, she says. In 2001, after seven changes of government, the Supreme Court upheld Rajiv’s stand in the 1986 “Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce)” Act, she points out.
“He replied that he was trying to deal fairly with a complicated situation. He explained that he was seeking a way to address the problem of Shah Bano and other women like her without putting in jeopardy the entire edifice of Muslim Personal Law,” Sonia Gandhi recounts.
‘Wouldn’t I defend women’s rights – don’t you know me?’ he said in a slightly irritated tone.
