On June 27, All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), held an emergency meeting late night after Prime Minister Narendra Modi bats for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) while addressing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
In the meeting, AIMPLB decided to oppose the UCC. The board members decided that the Muslim law board would present their side in front of the Law Commission on UCC and would also present the documents.
The meeting was attended by AIMPLB president Saifullah Rehmani, Chairman of Islamic Centre of India and member of AIMPLB Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, and AIMPLB lawyers among others.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), an ally of the Congress also questioned PM Modi’s pitch for UCC and said that a uniform code should first be applied to Hindus.
“Uniform Civil Code should be first introduced in the Hindu religion. Every person, including Scheduled Castes and Tribes, should be allowed to perform pooja in any temple in the country. We don’t want UCC (uniform Civil Code) only because the Constitution has given protection to every religion,” said DMK’s TKS Elangovan.
PM Modi said, “Will a family function if there are two different sets of rules for people? Then how will a country run? Our Constitution too guarantees equal rights to all people.”
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that a comparison between a family and a nation is not apt and that it cannot be forced on anyone.
“Even in a family there is diversity. The Constitution of India recognised diversity and plurality among the people of India. A UCC is an aspiration. It cannot be forced on the people by an agenda-driven majoritarian government,” he said. Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, reacting to PM Modi’s statement on Uniform Civil Code, said that the prime minister is “distracting people from other issues”.
“He (PM) should first answer about poverty, price rise and unemployment in the country. He never speaks about Manipur issues, the whole state is burning. He is just distracting people from all these issues,” said Congress general secretary KC Venugopal.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi called it an attack on the country’s pluralism and diversity.
“India’s PM considers India’s diversity and its pluralism a problem. So, he says such things…Will you strip the country of its pluralism and diversity in the name of a UCC? When he speaks of UCC, he is speaking of the Hindu Civil Code…I challenge him – can he abolish the Hindu Undivided Family,” said Owaisi.
Attacking the Opposition while addressing BJP workers, PM Modi said the people are being instigated in the name of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). He also asked how the country can function with dual laws that govern personal matters, and accused the Opposition of using the UCC issue to “mislead and provoke” the Muslim community.
PM Modi said vote-bank politics had failed the Pasmanda Muslims — an identity that integrates Dalit and the backward caste which make up 80 per cent of the community.
“The lives of Pasmanda Muslims have been made difficult by those who do vote-bank politics in the country. They are not treated equally. They have been exploited by members of their own community,” PM Modi said.
He also attacked those supporting the “Triple Talaq” and said, “These people are doing grave injustice to Muslim daughters. If this was an important aspect of Islam, why is it not there in Pakistan, Indonesia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria and Bangladesh?” he asked. He further said that Egypt had “removed” the practice “80 to 90 years ago”.
