Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday said that he submitted a response to the Law Commission on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). He described the exercise as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attempt to reap political dividends.
Mr. Owaisi was interacting with the media at party headquarters in Darussalam where he said that also included in the response was a legal opinion of Justice V. Gopala Gowda on the subject.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president accused the BJP of seeking to vitiate the communal atmosphere of the country. Mr Owaisi said that the present Law Commission’s seeking of responses on the UCC comes as no surprise. “Like clockwork BJP raises the UCC. The goal is to vitiate the atmosphere and reap political dividends,” Mr Owaisi said, adding that the 22nd Law Commission did not give any proposal, but merely cited the 21st Law Commission’s work.
“We believe that it is a political exercise which seeks to create an unnecessary environment, to divert attention from the poverty, unemployment and Chinese transgressions,” the Hyderabad parliamentarian said, adding that the UCC was biased and in favor of the religious morality of the religious majority.
Mr. Owaisi estimated the tribal population in the country as 11.5 crore and claimed that the UCC would obliterate various customs. He challenged Prime Minister Modi to come to Adilabad in Telangana and tell the Gond community about the implementation of the UCC. He also dared the Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to remove the uniform civil laws there, and the BJP to inform the tribals of the north eastern states of the UCC exercise.
The AIMIM president recently took a delegation of Muslim leaders, including AIMPLB president Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, and met the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in connection with the UCC. After the deliberations, the Bharatiya Rashta Samithi announced that it would not support the UCC if the Union government intends to introduce it in the country.
Mr Owaisi expressed confidence that the BRS would oppose the UCC, but when asked whether the party would abstain or vote against it, Mr Owaisi said that the strategy is for that party to decide. He also said that he intends to meet Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to discuss the UCC.
The AIMIM chief also pointed out that Agent-General of India in Hyderabad KM Munshi had accepted Muslim personal laws as did Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
