After Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tabled the Uniform Civil Code Bill in the state Assembly, Samajwadi Party MP ST Hasan on Tuesday said the bill is against the tenets of the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims, and we won’t abide by it (UCC Bill) if it is against the ‘hidayat’.
“We won’t abide by it (UCC Bill) if it is against the ‘hidayat’ (instructions) given to Muslims in the Quran. We don’t have any issue if it is as per ‘hidayat’,” news agency PTI quoted the Samajwadi Party MP as saying.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has also criticised the bill. According to reports, an executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board — Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, said that a few communities would be exempted from it (Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code).
“As far as UCC is concerned, we are of the opinion that uniformity cannot be brought in each and every law and if you exempt any community from this UCC, how can it be called a uniform code?… There was no need for any such uniform civil code. After the draft is presented before the Assembly, our legal team study this and then the further course of action will be decided…,” Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali said.
Reacting to the Uniform Civil Code bill in Uttarakhand Assembly, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal said ‘the bill should be dumped in the dustbin’.
“India is a colourful garden. However beautiful a garden is, if it has just one flower, you will not be able to look at it for long. In India, people of all faiths, culture live. That is our beauty…If anything is done against nature, it won’t continue for long…State Assemblies have to bring something shiny when the government becomes a failure. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma too does this from time to time…They want to please PM Modi as they want to continue as the CM for some time. This Bill should be dumped in the dustbin,” the MP from Dhubri (Assam), said.
Meanwhile, the state Congress unit today said the party is not against the Uniform Civil Code but the manner in which the bill is being tabled in the Assembly.
“We are not against it (Uniform Civil Code). The House is governed by the rules of conduct of business but the BJP is continuously ignoring it and wants to suppress the voice of the MLAs based on the strength of numbers. It is the right of the MLAs to express their views in the House, during Question Hour, whether they have a proposal under Rule 58 or under other rules, they have the right to raise their voices on various issues of the state in the Assembly,” Yashpal Arya, leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said.
Harish Rawat, former chief minister of Uttarakhand, said the state government and the chief minister Dhami are not following the rules in eagerness to pass the bill.
The former chief minister said the members don’t have the draft copy of the bill and the government wants an immediate discussion on it.
“No one has the draft copy and they want an immediate discussion on it. The central government is using a sensitive state like Uttarakhand for tokenism, if they want to bring UCC, it should have been brought by the central government,” he told ANI.
It is important to note that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised the Uniform Civil Code bill during 2022 Assembly elections in the state. After becoming a law, the bill will replace the personal religious laws that govern marriage, divorce, inheritance etc.
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