Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 15: The Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s push to the BJP and NDA-ruled states to adopt the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) before the next Lok Sabha elections in 2029, seems to be meeting some resistance from some of its alliance partners.
At least three BJP allies have struck circumspect note over Mr Shah’s sudden announcement over the UCC, while some of the members of several other NDA supporting parties have asked their respective parties to clear their stand on the issue.
Mr Idris Naikwadi, the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is supporting the NDA at the Centre and is a partner in the BJP-led “Mahayuti” government in Maharashtra, on Tuesday said he had asked his party to make its stand clear on the UCC.
Mr Naikwadi, a Governor-nominated Member of the Legislative Council (MLC), said he had written to party chief and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and state NCP president Sunil Tatkare on the issue.
“I submitted a letter to the party last week stating that a legislation pertaining to the UCC will be tabled during the winter session of the state legislature. Ours is a secular party and I have asked the party to make its stand clear on the issue,” Mr Naikwadi said. Mr Naikwadi is one of the two Muslim legislators of the party.
Addressing a media conference in Mumbai on Sunday, Mr Shah had said, “We have introduced UCC in several states and I am confident that in the 21 BJP and NDA-ruled states, we will introduce UCC before 2029.” The Maharashtra BJP Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said the State government would implement the UCC once the committee preparing the draft bill submitted its report.
The announcement was taken with a cautious note by three of the NDA allies, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, the Janata Dal (United), a partner in the BJP-led alliance government in Bihar, and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), a member of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. The support of the three parties are crucial for the survival of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre as his BJP has fallen short of a clear majority on its own in the Lok Sabha.
The TDP’s parliamentary party leader Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu on Mr Shah’s remarks on UCC said his party had not considered the issue nor was there any discussion on the UCC in NDA. “As of now there is no discussion but whenever we find the need for it, we will look into it. We will definitely involve various stakeholders before we adopt it,” he said, apparently careful about the TDP’s Muslim vote share.
The JD(U) working president Sanjay Jha said he party would speak with Shah on the issue. “I will meet Amit Shah and discuss the issue,” he said, apparently none too keen on the UCC. On Monday, senior JD(U) leader Shyam Rajak had said his party was opposed to implementation of UCC in Bihar even though it had supported the UCC Bill in Parliament.
Another NDA ally and a minister in the Modi cabinet, the LJP chief Chirag Paswan, said though his party was committed to “uniformity as well as diversity,” the Constitution had acknowledged different traditions and different practices of different communities.
The opposition has hit out at the union home minister accusing the BJP of using its communal and majoritarian politics. The DMK, the CPM, the AIMIM and several other parties said they would oppose the move while pointing out that uniformity did not always meant equality as enshrined in the Constitution.
Questioning the move to use the “back-door entry,” the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said the BJP should implement the UCC by legislating over it in the Parliament rather than pushing it through BJP-ruled States.
“The government should not take the backdoor route and should instead bring the Bill before the Parliament. If you have numbers, bring it to the Parliament. Why are you doing this through different States?” asked Mr Abdullah.
He also flagged that several National Democratic Alliance (NDA) allies were “opposed to the idea of the UCC.” “Not all the NDA allies are in favour of the proposal. I don’t think they will be able to pass this in the Parliament. That is why they are taking the [BJP-ruled States] path,” he said. “If the BJP’s own people are not ready for this, how can they say that it should be implemented in the whole country,” he added.
Stating that a measure of this nature “could not be considered universal if it was implemented only in BJP-ruled States,” Mr Abdullah said, “The whole country is not a BJP-ruled State. There are a number of States and territories that the BJP does not rule. Therefore, if you apply it only to BJP States, it’s not universal.” He pitched that “such an issue should not be decided by individual States and must be addressed at the national level through Parliament.”