While advocating for an equal share of the property for a wife, the chief minister(CM) of the Indian state of Assam suggested that a Muslim man marry a woman, not three.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, according to the ANI, also called for a legal divorce in the community instead of giving 'talaq' or divorce.
Most Islamic countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan have banned triple talaq, but the custom continued in India, which does not have a uniform set of laws on marriage and divorce that apply to every citizen.
"Assam government is very clear that no Muslim man should marry three women. Don't give talaq, give divorce legally,” he told a press conference on Wednesday.
Insisting on an equal share of the property between daughters and sons, he said: “Give 50% share of the property to the wife. Views of the government and the common Muslims are the same."
In June 2019, India's parliament approved a bill that makes the Muslim practice of "instant divorce" a criminal offence.
"Triple talaq", as it is known, allows a husband to divorce his wife by repeating the word "talaq" (divorce) three times in any form, including email or text message. The Supreme Court of Indian had declared the practice unconstitutional in 2017.
About 2% of the global population lives in polygamous households, the Pew Research Centre said in a 2019 report.
The practice is banned in much of the world, including in Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey and Tunisia, and is extensively regulated in most countries. The UN terms it "an inadmissible discrimination against women" and called for it to "be definitely abolished".
But in India, the issue is a political hot potato. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to enact a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) - a contentious piece of legislation that will mean marriages, divorces and inheritance will no longer be governed by their religious law but will come under a common law applicable to all citizens.
With the country highly polarised along religious lines, any reform suggested by the government is bound to be considered an onslaught on Islam by a majority of Muslims.
