NEW DELHI: The Vishva Hindu Parishad has strongly opposed the “Constitution and Sharia Protection Movement” announced by the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board. VHP Central Joint Secretary Vijay Shankar Tiwari said India is a constitutional nation where the Constitution is supreme, not Sharia.
Tiwari said organisations that invoke the Constitution while placing Sharia on an equal footing with it are “playing with the unity of the country”.
Addressing the Muslim community, Tiwari said Muslims in India are Indian citizens and enjoy all rights guaranteed by the Constitution. However, he said citizenship also comes with duties. Accepting the laws of the country, respecting national symbols and understanding the spirit of the Uniform Civil Code are also part of citizenship, he added.
Tiwari said the Board repeatedly presents a picture that Muslims are being persecuted, mosques and madrasas are being targeted, bulldozers are being used only against them and Vande Mataram is an attack on their religion. He described this as an incomplete and misleading picture.
He said illegal constructions, encroachments and defiance of court orders cannot be justified in the name of protecting any religion. “The law applies equally to everyone,” he said, adding that portraying oneself as a victim by calling illegal acts legal was not appropriate.
On the Uniform Civil Code, Tiwari said opposition to it effectively amounted to opposing equal rights for women within the Muslim community. He said demands to continue practices such as polygamy, unequal inheritance and provisions of personal law that conflict with the constitutional principle of equality indefinitely were not in the country’s interest.
He said the steps taken by the courts and Parliament on triple talaq were in favour of justice and added that taking the same direction forward was what the UCC represented.
On Vande Mataram, Tiwari said it was a song of the freedom struggle and that expressing reverence towards the nation was not an insult to any religion.
He said those who could not respect the national song had lost the moral right to speak about the Constitution.
Tiwari appealed to the aware sections of the Muslim community not to create an atmosphere of fear through statements made by their own leaders. He said the lives, property and places of worship of Muslims in the country are protected by the Constitution, not Sharia.
He questioned those radical leaders who, while writing the Constitution and Sharia in the same line and threatening to launch a movement, should clarify what they would follow in case of a conflict between the two—“the Constitution or Sharia?”
1. No personal law of any community in India can be above the Constitution.
2. The Uniform Civil Code is a demand for national unity and genuine equality.
3. Action against illegal construction and encroachment cannot be stopped on religious grounds.
4. Respect for Vande Mataram is patriotism, not opposition to any religion.
5. Attempts to divide the country by portraying oneself as a victim will not be accepted.
Tiwari said the Hindu society is not opposed to anyone’s legitimate religious practices. However, he said, an attempt to impose Sharia above the Constitution is “against the nation”.
“Accept the Constitution, follow the law, respect the nation, this is true protection,” he said.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad stands firmly for peace, dialogue and the supremacy of the Constitution.
