BJP Committed To Bring UCC Once Democratic Debates, Discussions Are Concluded: Home Minister Amit Shah

The BJP is committed to bring Uniform Civil Code (UCC) after all democratic debates and discussions are concluded, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday.

When asked about UCC, Shah said it is the BJP's promise to the people of this country, right from the Jan Sangh days.

'Not only BJP, the Constituent Assembly had also advised the Parliament and states to bring UCC at an opportune time, because for any secular country, laws should not be on the basis of religion. If nation and state are secular, how can laws be based on religion? For every believer, there should be one law passed by the Parliament or the state Assemblies,' Shah said at the Times Now Summit.

This commitment of the Constituent Assembly was forgotten over a period of time, he claimed.

'Except the BJP, no other party is in favour of the Uniform Civil Code. In a democracy, healthy debate is a necessity. There is a need for open and healthy debate on the issue,' he said.

The Home Minister said that in three BJP ruled states, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat, a panel under the chairmanship of retired Supreme Court and High Court chief justices has been formed, where people of different faiths are putting forth their views.

'We will take action on the basis of recommendations coming after this exercise. The BJP is committed to bring UCC once all democratic discussions are over,' he said.

A UCC would be the continuation of the project which practically began with the abolition of triple talaq through a law brought in by the Modi government.

Such policies and actions will be called communal, but as the triple talaq victory shows, the only thing communal about them is the nature of the minoritarian dog-whistles that are not being called out.

On the other hand, there are also commentators who sound a note of caution by saying that a uniform, centralised and ‘one size fits all’ civil code, which would also apply on Hindus, would be blind to plurality of Hindu society and would be, in fact, quite elitist in nature.

With inputs from PTI.