Minister of State for Health and former Minister of State for Law, S P Singh Baghel on July 4 said the BJP had the utmost respect for tribal communities and nothing would be done to hurt their religious and social customs.
Keep tribals out of UCC
He was speaking to the media on remarks made by his party colleague, Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi, who as chairperson of the standing committee on law and justice had reportedly said that the tribal population in the Northeast and other parts of the country must be kept out of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
According to reports, Mr Modi on Monday during a panel meeting on UCC, had said that the North Eastern states with large tribal populations and which came under the provisions of Article 371 should be exempted from the law.
UCC important to PM
This was an important remark to make after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s impassioned appeal for a UCC in a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh last week. The UCC is an important core issue for the BJP.
Mr Baghel, said the “BJP chose to nominate a tribal woman as the President of India -- the highest post in the land. It also has the largest number of tribal MLAs, MPs, Rajya Sabha members and ministers. The customs of the North East are respected by the party and we will not hurt any religious or social customs, but appeasement politics is not right either.”
Mr Baghel’s publicly expressed views indicate that the views of various tribal forums in the North East and its own NDA ally, the National People’s Party (NPP), the ruling party in Meghalaya seem to be impinging on the move towards a UCC, which gained ground after the law commission notified that it would be soliciting public comment on the UCC.
