Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for a uniform civil code has been vehemently questioned by the Congress and its ally, the DMK. The ruling party of Tamil Nadu had contended that a uniform code should first be applied to the Hindus, who will then have to allow people from all castes to pray in temples.
Smelling the Prime Minister’s pet electoral tactics to polarize Hindu and Muslim votes, DMK leader TKS Elangovan challenged the ruling party saying: “Uniform Civil Code should be first introduced in the Hindu religion. Every person including Scheduled Castes and Tribes should be allowed to perform pooja in any temple in the country. We don’t want UCC (uniform Civil Code) only because the Constitution has given protection to every religion”.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the Prime Minister is just distracting people from important issues as he “should first answer about poverty, price rise and unemployment in the country”. “He never speaks on Manipur issue”, he said in a statement.
The PM’s statement on the UCC is part of the well deliberated strategy as his comments immediately follow the 22nd Law Commission seeking views from various stakeholders on a uniform civil code and reports that the government could bring in a bill in the next session of Parliament.
Irony of the whole issue is that the 21st Law Commission, appointed by the Modi government, had opposed the implementation of the UCC in its recommendations but with the objective of the BJP’s tactics of dividing the polity on Hindu and Muslims, the new Commission was asked to revive the issue.
Addressing a gathering of BJP workers under the party’s “Mera Booth Sabse Majboot” campaign in Madhya Pradesh, where elections are due by December, PM Modi said those who opposed a common law for the country were inciting people in their own interests.
“Indian Muslims will have to understand which political parties are provoking and destroying them for their own benefit,” he said, pointing out that the Constitution also talks about equal rights for all citizens. The Supreme Court has also asked for a Uniform Civil Code, he added.
Modi questioned the banned ‘triple talaq’ and questioned why, if it was inalienable from Islam, it wasn’t practised in Muslim-majority countries like Egypt, Indonesia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Egypt, where Sunni Muslims make up 90 per cent of the population, triple talaq was abolished 80 to 90 years ago, he pointed out.
“Those who advocate for triple talaq, are hungry for a vote bank, they are doing grave injustice to Muslim daughters,” the Prime Minister said.
He said triple talaq didn’t just concern women but destroyed entire families. When a woman, after a wedding full of hopes, is sent back after triple talaq, it is her parents and brothers who feel her pain.
Some people want to hang the noose of triple talaq over Muslim daughters to have a free hand to keep oppressing them,” PM Modi said, adding that these are the people who support triple talaq.
“This is why Muslim sisters and daughters, wherever I go, stand with the BJP and Modi,” he added.
Modi also slammed “those who target the BJP”, saying if they really were well-wishers of Muslims, then most families from the community wouldn’t have lagged behind in education and employment, and forced to live a difficult life. Triple talaq is banned under the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, which imposes a punishment of up to three years in jail. The Supreme Court has said there is no bar on granting anticipatory bail in such cases, provided the court hears the complainant woman before granting pre-arrest bail.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh last week said that Uniform Civil Code is part of the Directive Principles of the Constitution of India and that the Opposition is exaggerating the issue by labelling it as “politics of vote bank”.
Uniform Civil Code refers to a set of overarching laws that apply to everyone in the country and replaces religion-based personal laws, rules of inheritance, adoption and succession.
In September last year, a private member’s Bill that seeks to provide for a panel to prepare a Uniform Civil Code was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in face of great resistance by opposition parties. In the past, although similar bills were listed for introduction, they were not moved in the Upper House.
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