Triple Talaq verdict: Let's remember this day

Perhaps only if one is a Muslim woman not exactly on the best of terms with her husband — feeling the constant cold threat of getting ejected from his life and 'surgically' removed from her children post the mere utterance of 'Talaq, Talaq, Talaq' — can one truly understand how far-reaching the Supreme Court's judgement is and how deeply supportive the stand of the Modi government has been.

Ironically, a government that has been called 'non-secular' and 'anti-Muslim' has been the one to push hard for the true emancipation of Muslim women in this country. In April, PM Modi had said, "Our Muslim sisters deserve justice… We can't simply move forward at a slow pace, but charge ahead with full speed." The Ministry of Law and Justice, in an affidavit, had referred to principles like gender equality, secularism, international covenants, religious practices and marital law prevalent in various Islamic countries to advocate that the practice of triple talaq needed to be adjudicated upon afresh by the apex court.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court did that, and more. It bid 'talaq' to instant triple talaq in a 3-2 judgement that will go down in Indian judicial history as a milestone that removed the heaviest millstone from around the necks of millions of Muslim women in this country. The job of crushing that millstone for good now rests in the hands of the political establishment.

DNA urges it to rise to the occasion, reach beyond the politics of appeasement, and bring about real change in the lives of real people.