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| - Fact Check: Does Congress support female genital mutilation?
The Congress encountered backlash on social media because its spokesman Abhishek Singhvi represented a Muslim group that defends the practice of female circumcision. Here's the Viral Test shedding light on the truth.
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India Today Fact Check
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi is also a lawyer, and while he was representing the Dawoodi Bohra community in a case on a personal capacity, he too condemned FGM.
Parties across India's political spectrum have rich legal talents. But social media appears to be making life tough for at least some of them.
Just recently, the Congress encountered backlash on social media because its spokesman Abhishek Singhvi, a top-notch lawyer himself, represented a Muslim group that defends the practice of female circumcision.
Right-wingers have accused the opposition party of Muslim appeasement. But India Today separated the wheat from the chaff.
Our investigation has proved how trolls have gone a bit too far in manufacturing a narrative that seeks to paint the opposition party as prejudiced and anti-women.
In reality though, Singhvi's role as a professional lawyer and the Congress' official position on cases he deals with in courts are not connected.
On Monday, the lawyer appeared for the Bohra community, a Muslim sect practicing the FGM.
The custom is facing a challenge in the Supreme Court via a PIL by two Bohra women and an advocate, Sunita Tiwari. Singhvi is counsel for the Dawoodi Bohra Women's Association, which is opposing the PIL.
For the record, FGM, called khatna by the Bohras, remained a well-kept secret for long before the petition brought it under the national spotlight.
With that came a troll assault on the Congress. After all, Singhvi is one of the most popular faces of the opposition party.
FMG has been opposed worldwide by campaigners and health experts alike.
According to the WHO, the procedure intentionally alters or causes injury to the vagina and the clitoris. Remember, when the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India as the most dangerous country for women, it also cited FGM in its methodology under the head "cultural traditions".
The global condemnation of the FMG provided sufficient ammunition for critics to attack the Congress because its official spokesperson, Singhvi, was seen representing a client that upholds a practice that many say must end.
Trolls used the occasion to accuse the party of supporting "anti-women" rituals.
"Congress defends female genital mutilation, halala, triple talaq, sharia but (the) BJP is regressive," taunted a tweet on The Frustrated Indian (@FrustIndian) handle.
Petitioners, on their part, are demanding the FGM be outlawed on the ground that it violates the child rights of Bohra Muslim girls.
The respondents, however, claim the procedure adopted by the sect is not harmful and is completely different from the FGM that leads to severe injuries.
I represent the Dawoodi Bohra community in the matter. The Congress is not a party in the case and is not related to the case in the remotest manner.
Asked whether he'd oppose a ban on the FMG, Singhvi himself called the practice "barbaric".
The first sentence in my written submission is that female genital mutilation is condemnable. It is a barbaric practice done in certain African countries and has no relation to the three schools of thought of Shia Islam.
That said, the lawyer argued that female circumcision as practised overwhelmingly by the Bohras, as part of their religious customs, only involved a nick on the prepuce. It does not deform or injure the vagina, he insisted.
Singhvi also referred to the Islamic practice of male circumcision or khatna, which he said is allowed all over the world.
Circumcision finds a mention in sacred texts of several Semitic religions.
It's referred to as the gender-neutral "khafz". As recorded in the school of Islam practised by the Dawoodi Bohra community, "khafz" is an integral part of the religious practice to achieve "taharat" or purity.
Singhvi's party colleague Jaiveer Shergill, another Congress spokesman, rebutted online accusations of anti-women bias.
Our party has always stood for equal rights of women. Singhvi ji has said party has no role in the case. His professional appearances cannot be mixed with the party he belongs to.
Remember, Congress is no stranger to allegations of religious and gender prejudice. The BJP and its supporters had accused the party of attempts to delay any early settlement of the Ram Janambhoomi issue in favour of the Hindus when its leader Kapil Sibal, also a renowned lawyer, represented a co-petitioner in the lawsuit over the land title dispute in the supreme court earlier.
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