Uttarakhand will "soon" implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced on Friday amid a raging debate over the issue with Congress leader Meem Afzal calling it "DCC--Dividing Civil Code" and the BJP condemning the attitude of opposition parties objecting to its implementation.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Prakash Javadekar asserted that the UCC was not a religious issue but a matter of equal rights, justice and dignity for women, while Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the "electoral agenda" of the BJP is behind raking up the issue and urged the Central government to withdraw the move to impose it.
Dhami's announcement about the implementation of the UCC in his state came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong push at a BJP event in Bhopal for its implementation.
Earlier, an expert committee, set up by the Uttarakhand government to examine the various existing laws regulating personal civil matters of the residents of the state and to prepare draft law or laws or suggest changes in existing laws dealing with marriage, divorce and succession among others, said the draft of the proposed UCC was ready.
"As per the promise made to the people of the state, today on June 30, the committee formed to prepare the draft of the Uniform Civil Code has completed its work. Soon #UniformCivilCode will be implemented in Devbhoomi Uttarakhand. Jai Hind, Jai Uttarakhand!" Dhami tweeted.
Stepping up the attack against the Central government, Congress leader Meem Afzal said, "This is not UCC, this is DCC-Dividing Civil Code. UCC is not the agenda, rather the agenda is to divide the people of the country."
In a statement, Vijayan, who is also a senior leader of the CPI(M), said the Centre's move can only be seen as a plan to implement the "majority communal agenda of 'one nation, one culture' by wiping out the cultural diversity of the country".
"The Central Government and the Law Commission should withdraw from the move to impose the Uniform Civil Code," he said.
Reacting strongly, Javadekar condemned the attitude of opposition parties objecting to its implementation.
Addressing reporters at the BJP headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, he said many Muslim-dominated nations are following the practice of following a common civil code and it is "so natural throughout the world".
Indonesia, Sudan, Turkey, Bangladesh and several other countries have the common civil code, and in India, it has already been in practice in Goa and Puducherry, he said.
There is one criminal law for all and there should be one civil law for all as well, he asserted.
Samajwadi Party national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav accused the BJP of indulging in "propaganda over the UCC" with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"Whenever there are elections, these people indulge in this kind of propaganda. They don't have to do anything nor will they be able to do anything. They will continue to indulge in this kind of talk before elections," Yadav told reporters in Etawah when questioned on BJP's moves towards the UCC.
Declaring Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena's complete support to the proposed UCC, Shiv Sena leader and Lok Sabha MP from south central Mumbai, Rahul Shewale appealed to the Centre to discuss the proposed UCC in Parliament’s monsoon session.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai on the first anniversary of the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, Shewale also urged CM Shinde to get a resolution passed in support of UCC in the upcoming monsoon session of the state legislature and send it to the Centre to let it know Maharashtra’s stand on the issue.
Meanwhile, a parliamentary standing committee has called representatives of the Law Commission and the law ministry on July 3 on a recent notice issued by the law panel seeking the views of stakeholders on the issue.
According to the schedule of the Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, it will hear the views of representatives of the law panel and legal affairs and legislative departments of the law ministry "on public notice issued by the Law Commission of India on June 14, 2023, inviting views from the various stakeholders on the Uniform Civil Code, under the subject 'Review of Personal Laws'"