Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India needed a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as the country could not run with the dual system of “separate laws for separate communities”. He was addressing booth-level workers of the BJP in Bhopal (and the interactive session being livestreamed to 10 lakh workers of the party), an address which clearly signalled his government’s intent on bringing the UCC.
His statement on the UCC — a divisive issue on which several minority communities have often expressed reservations — comes at a time when the country’s political calendar for the next one year is packed with Assembly polls in five States and the 2024 General Elections. It also comes less than a fortnight after the 22nd Law Commission of India sought fresh suggestions from various stakeholders, including public and religious organisations, on the UCC.
There was also dual messaging in Mr. Modi’s address wherein he urged the Muslim community in India to “understand which political parties are instigating them to ruin themselves”, an urging at a time when he had been dogged with concerns expressed in certain quarters of the United States, during his state visit there, on minority rights.
