Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is a “constitutional agenda” that was signed by the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, however, the Congres ignored it due to appeasement politics.
“UCC has been BJP’s agenda since the Jana Sangh days. But the UCC is an agenda of the Constitution. In Article 44, the makers of the Constitution had said that at the right time, there must be UCC. It has the signatures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad, Rajendra Prasad and others. At that time, the BJP was not even formed,” Shah said at the ET NOW Global Business Summit 2024.
“But you forgot UCC due to appeasement. The BJP has held on to UCC. In Uttrakhand, the UCC has been brought because it is a matter of social change. It will be discussed on all forums and face legal scrutiny. After all the discussions, I believe all states will adopt UCC. A secular country cannot have religion-based civil codes,” he added.
The Uttrakhand Assembly on Wednesday passed the Uniform Civil Code Uttarakhand 2024 Bill on Wednesday by a voice vote, becoming the first state in the country to implement the UCC after independence.
The Bill proposes common law on marriage, divorce, land, property and inheritance for all citizens, irrespective of their religion. However, it exempts the Scheduled Tribes from its purview.
‘NDA to get more than 400 seats in LS polls’
The Union Minister also expressed confidence that the BJP will get 370 seats and the NDA more than 400 in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls that is scheduled in April-May this year. He also said that the BJP government will come to power under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We have abrogated Article 370 (of the Constitution, which gave a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir). So we believe that the people of the country will bless the BJP with 370 seats and the NDA with over 400 seats,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), headed by Jayant Singh, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and some other regional parties joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the polls, Shah said the BJP “believes in family planning but not in politics”, hinting that more parties may join the ruling coalition.
On SAD’s alliance with the NDA, Shah said that talks are on but nothing has been finalised.
On the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shah said the citizens of India believed that temple should be built where Lord Ram was born, however, due to politics of appeasement and citing law and order, the Ram Temple’s construction was not being allowed.
CAA to be implemented before Lok Sabha elections 2024: Amit Shah
Shah said that the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which was passed by the Parliament in 2019, will be notified and implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.
“The Muslim community are being misled and instigated. The CAA is only meant to give citizenship to those who came to India after facing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It is not for snatching anyone’s Indian citizenship,” Shah said at the summit.
He also accused the Congress of backtracking on the promise of CAA.
After coming to power for a second term, the Modi government in 2019 introduced CAA, which will give Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians, who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and came to India before December 31, 2014.