BJP governments to soon bring UCC in all states: Union home minister Amit Shah
Amit Shah supports Uttarakhand's UCC as a model law, accusing Congress of appeasement and undermining the Constitution during a Rajya Sabha debate.
The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) implemented by Uttarakhand is a model law that will be debated widely and then the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments will bring a common civil code in all states, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday as he accused the Congress of undermining the Constitution and promoting appeasement politics.
Replying to the debate on the 75th year of the Constitution in the Rajya Sabha, a combative Shah drew a contrast between constitutional amendments brought by the Congress and the BJP to argue that the former pushed changes for personal gains and power. In an 85-minute speech, he also alleged that the Congress never respected reservations, wanted to breach the 50% ceiling to bring religion-based quotas, and attacked the opposition party over the imposition of Emergency.
“We work democratically…A law that brought huge changes to social life was passed as a model law by Uttarakhand. It will be examined legally and by religious heads, there will be discussions…suggestions will be accepted. After that, BJP governments will bring a common civil code in all states,” he said.
“That it couldn’t be brought till now is due to the Congress’s appeasement politics.”
UCC refers to a common set of laws that will subsume customary laws across faiths and govern issues such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and maintenance. Part of the troika of core ideological goals of the BJP, UCC was among the party’s poll promises in the 2022 assembly elections.
Last February, Uttarakhand passed a UCC law that provided for equal rights to women in marriage, divorce, alimony and inheritance of property, proscribed certain kinds of relationships, banned polygamy, made registration of marriages mandatory, and mandatory registration or self-declaration for live-in relationships. The law has not yet been implemented.
The decades-old demand for UCC – which is a part of the non-justiciable directive principles of state policy in the Constitution – is linked to India’s complex system of personal laws, rules and customs, especially for religious minorities. UCC, in theory, will implement homogenous rules for marriage, divorce, inheritance, financial compensation and adoption, among others, for all communities but many activists and experts fear that this may obliterate the customs and traditions of particular communities, and become a proxy to target their faiths.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly made a strong case for UCC and the BJP promised to bring a common law if it won the elections in Jharkhand earlier this year.
Shah said that the BJP amended the Constitution 22 times in 16 years and the Congress 77 times in 55 years. He said the intent behind the amendments shows whether the party had faith in the document.
“The Constitutional amendments made by our government were aimed at strengthening democracy and ensuring equal rights to those were deprived, the opposition’s amendments were solely to keep the political power with them,” he said.
“The first amendment was made on June 18, 1951... After the formation of the Constitution, the Congress did not have enough patience to wait for the Lok Sabha elections before going to power... Article 19A was added to curtail the freedom of speech... Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister at that time,” he said.
The second amendment was the 24th Amendment on November 5, 1971, made by then PM Indira Gandhi, which sought to curtail the fundamental rights of citizens, he said. “The 39th Amendment on August 10, 1975 that exempted the election of the PM and President from judicial scrutiny, was enacted during the Emergency to shield political leadership when Indira Gandhi’s election was declared invalid,” he said.
He then went on to dub the 42nd Amendment, brought to extend the term of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to six years, as a measure taken in fear of defeat in elections.
He sought to draw a contrast with the changes ushered in by the BJP. The 101st Amendment in 2018 brought in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that revolutionised India’s tax structure by establishing a unified taxation system, Shah said. “The 102nd Amendment in 2018 gave constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). Modi did it because the Congress did not believe in the welfare of the backward classes...the 103rd Amendment in 2019 was introduced a give 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) ...for years the Congress spoke about garib kalyan (welfare of the poor) but did not have the will for it,” he said.
The minister referred to two more amendments – the 105th Amendment in 2021 that gave state governments the power to identify socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) and the 106th Amendment in December 2023, that sanctioned 33% reservation for women in assemblies and the Lok Sabha as per the women’s reservation bill.
He mocked the Congress for blaming electronic voting machines for poll losses. “These days they blame the EVMs when they lost in Maharashtra the EVMs are faulty, but when they won in Jharkhand, they wore new clothes and rushed to take the oath,” he said.
Shah accused the Congress of disrespecting BR Ambedkar and said the Congress wanted to increase the quota limit beyond 50% to accommodate Muslims. “Even if there is only one BJP MP, we will not allow reservation based on religion,” he said. Congress MPs protested and said the party never recommended reservation on the basis of religion.
Shah also accused successive Congress PMs – from Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi – of not being in favour of caste-based reservations and said it was the BJP that gave constitutional status to the OBC Commission and allowed reservation for them in NEET and JEE.
“These days some leaders saw reservation as a formula to win elections...but the Kaka Kalelkar report was put in the cold storage,” he said amid protests from the Opposition. He was referring to the first OBC commission report that was never implemented.
When Congress leader Jairam Ramesh objected and said a copy of the report could be accessed in the Parliament library, Shah retorted, “They did not send it to the Cabinet and place it before Parliament, they kept it in the library.”
Challenging the Congress to clarify its position on Muslim personal laws, Shah said its introduction marked the beginning of appeasement politics in the country. “If they want Muslim Personal Law, why not allow punishments for crimes under Sharia...they started appeasement from here,” he said.
Responding to Congress MP Digvijaya Singh’s jibe on why UCC had not been implemented so far, Shah said it was due to the opposition party’s policies.
Accusing the Congress of treating the Constitution as “neeji parivaar ki jageer” (personal property of a family), Shah said constitutional provisions were violated when Article 35(A) – which gave the erstwhile state of J&K the powers to decide domicile – was introduced through a presidential order and not brought before Parliament, and when Article 1 was amended to “give away” Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka.
He also underlined the excesses during Emergency. “I used to listen to Binaca Geet Mala on radio...when it was pulled off air, a neighbour told me that Kishore Kumar’s songs cannot be played on radio and all of his songs would be sung by Lata Mangeshkar...” Shah said.
Shah hailed Indian democracy and said it did not allow dictatorship in the country. “In the last 75 years, there have been many nations that became independent and had new beginnings, but democracy did not succeed there. But our democracy is deep-rooted. We made numerous changes without shedding a drop of blood. The people of this country have shattered the arrogance of multiple dictators and that too democratically.”
Urging people to not link patriotism or bravery with ideology, religion or politics, the minister attacked the Congress for not respecting VD Savarkar and said the freedom fighter earned the epithet of Veer (brave) not from a political party, but from the people of the country.
“From 1857 to 1947, if there was anyone who was sentenced to life imprisonment twice in a single lifetime, it was Veer Savarkar. If anyone had the courage to leap into the ocean for the country’s freedom, it was Veer Savarkar. In the same prison, two brothers served the sentence of kaala paani (cellular confinement) for 10 years, but did not even see each other. There is no other such brave family in the entire country,” he said.
He also cited Indira Gandhi’s letter praising Savarkar. The comments came days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha that Savarkar did not believe in the Constitution and that his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, had told him how Savarkar compromised with the British.
Taking a jibe at Rahul Gandhi’s poll slogan of “Mohabbat ki dukaan”, Shah said, “I want to tell them mohabbat [love] cannot be sold in a shop... It is an emotion; it is something to be felt.”
The Congress hit back. “Amit Shah lied for 90 minutes...This was just an attack on the Congress, this was not a speech...Amit Shah insulted the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha,” said Ramesh
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