UCC row: Uttarakhand government led by Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is all set to implement the controversial Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state as a committee of experts will submit its report in the coming days. The buzz over UCC implementation triggered a political battle between Congress and BJP in Uttarakhand. BJP alleged the grand old party that it is opposing UCC to appease minority voters.
Uttarakhand BJP chief Mahendra Bhatt on Wednesday alleged the Congress was raising concerns about UCC to push its policy of "appeasement politics". Bhatt asked the grand old party to refrain from "creating misapprehensions" about the proposed law.
A committee of experts set up by the state government has announced the draft of the proposed UCC for Uttarakhand was ready and would soon be submitted to the state government.
What is UCC?
UCC refers to a common set of laws that are applicable to all citizens and is not based on religion in dealing with marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption among other personal matters.
What Uttarakhand CM said?
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had a few days ago said the Uniform Civil Code will be implemented in the state soon.
The concerns being raised by the Congress about what would happen to reservations to different sections and stakeholders after the implementation of UCC only reflects the party's frustration due to overwhelming public support for the code, Bhatt said.
"The Congress can get answers to its questions about the UCC only through a legislative debate. It should not try to create misapprehensions among people about it in advance. The Congress is only using these concerns as a cover to push its policy of appeasement," he said.
"UCC has nothing to do with reservations given to different sections. The Congress is only trying to mislead people about the UCC," the state BJP president added.
Uttarakhand Congress president Karan Mahara had on Tuesday expressed apprehensions about the consequences of the implementation of UCC.
The party will have to see to it whether the UCC protects the rights and constitutional privileges of the SCs and STs, he had said.
The BJP had promised the implementation of UCC in its manifesto for the 2022 assembly elections in Uttarakhand.
Bhatt said, "The expert committee has held hundreds of meetings with all stakeholders, different sections of society and tribal communities before preparing the draft UCC and there is no justification for the Congress to raise concerns about it."
UCC does not have anything to do with reservations. It only deals with property rights, marriage and adoption laws, women's rights and reconsidering legal sanction to various religious ill practices, he added.
The debate over a Uniform Civil Code was reignited after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong push for it, asking how can the country function with dual laws that govern personal matters, and accused the Opposition of using the UCC issue to "mislead and provoke" the Muslim community.
UCC has been one of the three key poll planks of the BJP for a long time with the other being the abrogation of Article 370 which had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir and the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
(With PTI inputs)
