UCC BJP' stop polarisation agenda for LS elections?

NT Correspondents

Bengaluru: The 22nd Law Commission on Wednesday asked all stakeholders, including civil society members, religious leaders and political parties for their suggestions in the framing of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). This has observers wondering if the BJP would prioritise the issue to polarise voters along religious lines in the lead up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2024.

They claim Prime Minister Narendra Modi is using the UCC to distract from his governance failures. The law commission is an executive body under the ministry of law and justice which advises the Centre on legal reforms. Congress MP Jairam Ramesh pointed out that the 21st law commission in 2018 had concluded that there was “no present need for UCC.”

He therefore held that the latest push for the same had to do with the ruling BJP’s political interest. Samajwadi Party (SP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) also opposed the exercise. The phenomenon of disadvantaged groups bearing the brunt of less than perfect police and judiciary notwithstanding, the country has a single criminal law applicable to all citizens.

However, different personal laws cover marriage, divorce, inheritance etc and apply to various religious communities and tribal groups.

BJP’s divisive trifecta

The BJP, even in its earlier avatar of Jan Sangh, had UCC near the top of its three-point agenda, which they perceive as hurting Muslim interests.

The community is currently governed by the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937. The other two issues being the establishment of Ram Mandir on the ruins of the demolished Babri Masjid and abolition of Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, both of which have already been accomplished.

The latter comes with the abrogation of article 35 A, which allows outsiders to buy land in Kashmir, which like Jammu and Ladakh, is now a union territory. Critics claim that this is a ploy to change the demographics of a UN-recognised disputed region.

In fact, while speaking about the abrogation of article 370 in the Rajya Sabha in August 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated the three point agenda and promised to implement the UCC in the future. The alleged merits of UCC aside, the communal nature of the agenda is evident.

Boon to some, bane to others

The BJP and larger Sangh Parivar holds that it is a matter of equality before law. The Opposition Congress and even the 21st law commission hold that difference (in personal law) doesn’t imply discrimination. For instance, Goa is the only state with a UCC, which allows Hindu men to take a second wife if she doesn’t bear a child by the not so ripe age of 25.

However, Muslim men aren’t allowed to be polygynous (men marrying multiple women) in Goa. Muslim men being allowed by their personal law to marry up to four wives elsewhere in the nation is one of the Sangh’s bugbears.