“When they [the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] say one law for one country, it eventually translates into Manusmriti should be the only law applicable to all. That is the Hindutva view,” said the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and former party general secretary Prakash Karat.
He was inaugurating the seminar, ‘Uniform Civil Code - RSS agenda for partition’ organised here by the Ernakulam district committee of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) on Saturday.
“The Central government is unlikely to bring the draft bill in Parliament before the next Lok Sabha election. What they want is to keep the issue boiling till then,” Mr. Karat said.
After the abrogation of Article 370 and the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, UCC remains the only unfinished agenda among the three core issues of the BJP and the RSS.
“Behind the UCC is that everyone in India, irrespective of any community and religion, will have to accept the majoritarian idea of citizenship and civil code,” Mr. Karat said.
Rather than enforcing the UCC, the personal laws of all communities should be reformed to strip them of practices discriminatory to women. “Discussions within the communities can bring about reforms ensuring equal rights for the women. This cannot be done through the UCC. Uniformity need not assure equality for women,” Mr. Karat observed.
Prime Minister Modi in his speech delivered in Bhopal talked about our Muslim daughters. Subsequently, a delegation from Nagaland, which is a predominantly tribal and Christian society, met Home Minister Amit Shah emerging from which the Nagaland Chief Minister said they had been assured that tribals and Christians would be exempted from the UCC. “That means only Muslims would be brought under the UCC. So the real purpose is not to ensure equality for women in all communities. Rather, it’s merely an instrument for polarising Hindus and Muslims before the next election,” Mr. Karat alleged.
The Prime Minister’s insistence that there cannot be dual laws in a country is borne out of his insufficient reading of the Constitution. The sixth schedule of the Constitution accorded some distinct tribal ethnic groups the autonomy to formulate laws. The 21st Law Commission had observed that implementing the UCC would lead to conflict with those Constitutional provisions, Mr. Karat said.
CPI district secretary K.N. Dinakaran presided. Mayor M. Anilkumar and CPI(M) district secretary C.N. Mohanan were among those who attended.
