With over three months since retired Justice Ranjana Desai claimed that the draft for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Uttarakhand was being ‘printed’ and was all set to be submitted to the government, the Congress questioned the reason for the draft being untraceable. The Opposition also alleged that UCC was Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poll plank and the ruling party only wanted to keep the pot simmering to polarise voters ahead of general elections.
Speaking on the UCC, senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat said that he had warned the Pushkar Singh Dhami government beforehand that UCC would not work for the innocent and peaceful people of the Himalayan State.
“Here, people live peacefully since ages. This government tried hard to divide people in the name of Mazar Jihad and Love Jihad but failed. They have realised long time back that UCC won’t help them so the matter has been shelved,” he said.
“We will again see the ghost of UCC with general elections nearing,” he added.
Uttarakhand, where Schedule Tribes (ST) make up 2.9% of the population, has only two seats reserved for the ST community; both seats have Congress members now.
Pritam Singh, one of the two ST MLAs of the State, alleged that the government was on the back foot as the tribal community in the State had not consented to the UCC, which he claimed the BJP was bringing to polarise the voters.
“In Chakrata, one of the biggest tribal-dominated areas, people have outrightly rejected the UCC. No one wants to change their customs for which they are known for. This has been the biggest set back for the BJP,” he added.
Praveen Kaushal, secretary of the NGO Sophia that worked among the tribal community and Muslims in Uttarakhand, told The Hindu that among the Van Gujjar tribe, nomadic water buffalo herders with a population of around 60,000 in the State and mostly have voting rights, there was apprehension over the UCC.
While Van Gujjars are Muslim tribes, the population of Muslims in the State (as per the 2011 Census) is 13.95%. The State has witnessed the mass migration of Muslims from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh over the past decade.
Mr. Kaushal added that other tribes in the State did not have apprehensions but were in wait-and-watch mode when it came to UCC.
When contacted, Justice Desai refused to comment on the status of the UCC draft.
The UCC committee, headed by Justice Desai, was formed by the Uttarakhand government in June last year to examine ways for implementation of the common code. In the span of a little over a year, this Committee has met 63 times. Over 2.15 lakh written submissions, including mass submissions (with multiple signatories), were received by the committee, which also met over 20,000 people personally via its public outreach programme. The Committee also interacted with representatives of political parties, State statutory commissions and leaders of various religious denominations.
