‘Muslims should bring change within’

Confirming to the narrative that the Muslim community should bring change within itself instead of change being brought about from outside, the Bhartiya Janta Party’s Minority Morcha head Abdul Ansari denied that the BJP is waging a war against the male dominated All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) that has come under scrutiny for its role in the ongoing instant triple talaq controversy.

Ansari said that despite the support people have given them, AIMPLB significantly failed in fulfilling a key role as a “reformer”. Ansari said, “I agree that the ‘reform’ has to come from the people of the community. No interference should be tolerated. But the moderate voices in the group cannot be quashed. These are the voices that act as stimulus for reform.”

There have been suggestions to form another parallel, but a progressive board to look over personal laws of Muslims in India. To this Ansari said, “If the residential society already has an existing welfare body, do you go and make a new one? That does not make sense. Making the required changes within the existing body to make it more effective and acceptable to the people is the right way forward. We do not need to make a new Muslim Personal Law board. Neither do we need to ban the existing one. BJP has no plans to stimulate making of a new board.” But given the questions that have been raised on the working of AIMPLB, Ansari said, “They are being rightly questioned. Their job was to ensure implementation of the Shariah law for Muslims and part of that required interpretation of the laws as per contemporary times. AIMPLB failed in their role to bring reforms here.”