‘UCC is political exercise aimed to take away focus of debate from key issues’: AIMIM chief Owaisi

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India]: Slamming Narendra Modi’s lead government at the Centre for proposing the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi called UCC a political exercise aimed to divert the course of debate away from key issues like poverty, unemployment and inflation.

Owaisi’s response came while addressing media at Hyderabad on Friday as he submitted party’s response to the Law Commission along with the retired Judge Gopala Gowda’s legal opinion on the subject.

Asaduddin Owaisi stated that “While the present notification of the 22nd Law Commission dated June 14, 2023, has solicited views and ideas on the issue of a Uniform Civil Code, however, the notification of the Law Commission does not put forth any proposal for comment, but merely refers back to the prior notifications of the 21st Law Commission.”

“It is no mere coincidence that it is almost exactly 5 years since the last exercise undertaken by the Law Commission to examine the subject of a ‘Uniform Civil Code’. Like clockwork, every time general elections are a few months away, the government led by the Bhartiya Janata Party rakes up the issue of UCC and tries to vitiate the atmosphere and polarise the electorate in the run-up to the elections,” he said.

He stated that Justice Chauhan who chaired the 21st Law Commission after the Consultation Paper specifically stated that “a uniform civil code is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage”.

The 22nd Law Commission does not even state what Uniform Civil Code is. In the tenor of debates in the Constituent Assembly, one of the proposals of BR Ambedkar was that the Parliament may make the Uniform Civil Code optional and it would be available to persons who wish to opt out of their personal laws.

There is a difference between uniformity and common law. BR Ambedkar himself said that UCC should be optional, not mandatory. There are laws for every crime but it not implemented on uniformity.

“You cannot use Article 44 to take away my fundamental right,” he said.

Owaisi further said, “The present exercise has no constitutional basis, it is merely a political exercise aimed at sparking a public debate on a sensitive issue in the run-up to the Lok Sabha Elections to take the focus of debate away from poverty, unemployment, inflation and other issues facing the country.”

He added that the UCC would obliterate diverse customs. He said the tribals in different parts of the country were already opposing the UCC. He challenged Prime Minister Modi and said, “Let the PM come to Adilabad in Telangana and tell the Gond community about the implementation of the UCC”.

Owaisi also dared the Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to remove the uniform civil laws there, and the BJP to inform the tribals of the northeastern states of the UCC exercise. Owaisi also dared the Assam CM who is about to bring a bill to ban polygamy to implement it in Assam.

Asaduddin Owaisi also hit out at Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan over his remarks on the UCC. He said, “As a Governor, he should not be showering praises on a Government. He should resign as Governor and officially join BJP.”

Making a sarcastic comment on the Congress he said, “If the Congress is not clear about UCC, then it is giving a good message to the country that it is not clear. It is giving a good message to the tribals that it is not clear and it itself is in confusion.”