New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) The Congress party on Wednesday accused the Modi government of using the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as an instrument to “divide, disrupt and divert” society rather than push it as a legal reform — after detailed consultations and broader consensus.
It also accused the ruling dispensation of “silencing” the critics, including its alliance partners, over the implementation of the UCC, with varying provisions, in different BJP-ruled states.
Congress’s criticism comes on the back of the former Bombay High Court judge R.C. Chavan quitting the Maharashtra government-appointed seven-member committee, tasked with preparing a draft framework for implementation of the UCC in the state.
He resigned from the panel on September 19, citing differences over its functioning and alleged involvement of an ‘outsider’ as the reason behind his exit.
Congress General Secretary and Communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that the resignation of a former High Court judge from the Maharashtra government’s committee to draft UCC for the state raises larger questions, apart from his several concerns on the functioning of this committee.
Questioning the intent and rationale behind a “different model” of UCC by different states, he posed multiple questions.
“Did the Constituent Assembly ever imagine a situation in which every state would enact its own separate version of a UCC?” he asked in a post on X.
“Did the architects of our Constitution, led by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, ever conceive of states competing with one another to have different UCCs according to the political machinations and calculations of one political party? Again, the answer is a resounding no,” he further stated.
The Congress MP claimed that the state-level UCCs, never envisaged in the Constitution, are not uniform. They contain different provisions, different penalties, different procedures and significant exemptions.
He further accused the Modi government of disregarding the findings of the very Commission it tasked with examining the issue, stating that they were rejected because they did not align with its political agenda.
“Over the last three years, one BJP-ruled state after another bulldozed through its own version of a Uniform Civil Code,” he stated.
Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent ‘bombastic’ remarks that UCC will be implemented in all NDA-ruled states before the 2029 Lok Sabha election, Jairam Ramesh alleged, “other NDA parties have lost their voices and are being silenced by the BJP.”
–IANS
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