Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 27: With the Parliamentary elections approaching, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reopened the issue of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) on the back of the Law Commission last fortnight seeking views from various stakeholders on the issue.
Addressing a gathering of BJP workers in Madhya Pradesh, which will go to the polls later this year, Modi in a strong pitch for a Uniform Civil Code said the country couldn’t run on two laws, much like it didn’t work to have “different set of rules for different members of a family.”
Modi’s comments come on the back of the 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. Attacking the opposition, Modi said those who opposed a common law for the country were inciting people for 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’s pitch for a uniform civil code was 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.
“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,” said DMK’s TKS Elangovan.
Constitutional experts said Modi’s pitch for UCC at the BJP rally on Tuesday was on the dotted lines of the law ministry affidavit filed months ago in the Supreme Court which said “citizens belonging to different religions and denominations following different property and matrimonial laws is an affront to the nation’s unity.”
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. In 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, they are hungry for a vote bank, they are doing grave injustice to Muslim daughters,” the PM 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,” 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 punishment of up to three years in jail. The Supreme Court has said there was no bar on granting anticipatory bail in such cases, provided the court hears the complainant woman before granting pre-arrest bail.
Article 44 of the Constitution enjoins upon the State to endeavour to secure to its citizens a UCC. In 2019, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court had exhorted the state to “endeavour” and bring the common code. It had referred to the failure of succeeding governments to “secure” the UCC for its citizens despite the codification of the Hindu law in 1956.
The court had said “despite the exhortations of this court in the case of Shah Bano in 1985, the government has done nothing to bring the Uniform Civil Code.” The Shah Bano case, which upheld a Muslim women’s right to maintenance, was considered a step in the direction of implementation of the UCC. “Whereas the founders of the Constitution in Article 44 in Part IV dealing with the Directive Principles of State Policy had hoped and expected that the State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territories of India, till date no action has been taken in this regard,” the Supreme Court had observed in the Jose Paul Coutinho judgment.
Recently, the apex court had upheld a State Government’s authority under the Constitution to form a committee to examine the implementation of the UCC. The decision had come in a challenge to the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand Government’s move to set up its own committee on the UCC.
The Prime Minister has referred, in his speech, to the Supreme Court’s decisions and observations to lay stress on the UCC. He has blamed the Opposition’s “vote-bank politics” for the delay in action regarding the UCC.
However, the Supreme Court, in a Constitution Bench judgment in SR Bommai versus Union of India, has also warned about “mixing religion and state power.” “The Constitution does not recognise, it does not permit, mixing religion and State power. Both must be kept apart. That is the constitutional injunction. None can say otherwise so long as this Constitution governs this country. Introducing religion into politics is to introduce an impermissible element into body politic and an imbalance in our constitutional system,” the 1994 judgment had said.
The Constitution Bench had highlighted how the Constitution required not only the State, but also political parties, to be “secular in thought and action.” “Political parties are formed and exist to capture or share State power. That is their aim… One cannot conceive of a democratic form of Government without the political parties. They are part of the political system and constitutional scheme. Nay, they are integral to the governance of a democratic society. If the Constitution requires the State to be secular in thought and action, the same requirement attaches to political parties as well,” the Bommai verdict had said.
Attacking Modi on his speech on UCC, the Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, “the prime minister should first answer about poverty, price rise and unemployment in the country.” “He never speaks on Manipur issue. The whole state is burning. He is just distracting people from all these issues,” he added.
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.