Skip to main content

No Muslim would ever oppose Universal Civil Code, claims top RSS ideologue

By A Representative
A conference, called to “educate” people on the Indian Civil Code at the Constitution Club, New Delhi, on Saturday, has seen RSS ideologue Indresh Kumar, an ex-Ajmer dargah terror blast accused, tell Muslims that none of them would object to Uniform Civil Code (UCC), claiming it doesn’t “conflict with any of the tenets of Islam” and as “good” for Muslim women.
Those participating included well-known pro-establishment minority personalities, including KJ Alphons (BJP MP, Rajya Sabha), Firoz Bakht Ahmed (chancellor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad), IA Ansari (former chief justice, Patna High Court), ZU Khan (former judge, Allahabad High Court) Zakia Soman (activist), and Khwaja Iftikhar Ahmed (Interfaith Harmony Foundation of India).
Organized by the Bhartiya Matdata Sangathan at the behest of Ashwini Upadhyay, known for POLs on instant Triple Talaq, Polygamy, Nikah Halala marriages among Muslims and Uniform Civil Code, Firoz Bakht Ahmed stated that some of the personal laws and their provisions “are ancient, outdated and inhuman as if from the stone age.” He added, “A parallel judiciary too will be injurious for the Indian paradigm.”
KJ Alphons said that owing to the blessings of the Indian Constitution, now, Christians too were able to give property rights to their women. Upadhyay added, for almost six decades, personal laws were “misused as vote bank by the Congress”, quoting the BJP manifesto to say that “there cannot be gender equality till such time India adopts a UCC.”
IA Ansari said that the implementation of UCC will be possible after the draft recommendations were placed in the general domain for attaining final shape, while ZH Khan said that a direction should be given to the Law Commission to draft UCC within three months.
Khwaja Iftikhar Ahmad contended that gender justice and gender equality, guaranteed under Articles 14-15 of the Constitution and dignity of women, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, cannot be secured without implementing the Article 44 (the state shall endeavour to secure for citizens a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) throughout the territory of India).
A resolution to the Prime Minister adopted at the conference said that India "urgently needs a Uniform Civil Code" to promote national integration as well as gender justice, equality and dignity of women, adding, UCC will “better suited for the realities of the contemporary social life, consistent with the values and principles of the Constitution.”
Zakia Soman said, there cannot be gender equality till such time India adopts a UCC, while  Rikabh Jain, convenor, Bhartiya Matdata Sangathan, insisted, the Centre should constitute a judicial commission or a high-level expert committee to draft UCC taking into account “best practices of all religions and sects.” 

Comments

TRENDING

The farmer's burden: How oil, war, and climate are rewriting the price of food

By Vikas Meshram   The scorching flames of the Middle East conflict are now slowly reaching the kitchens of ordinary people. The true price of this war is paid in daily markets, vegetable shops, and in the shattered minds of farmers. Expensive crude oil, skyrocketing fertilizer prices, and rising agricultural costs are together creating the conditions for global food inflation — and this crisis is directly tied to what people eat and drink every day.

India's nuclear euphoria: The hard economics policymakers ignore

By Shankar Sharma*  There is a sort of newfound euphoria sweeping India with respect to nuclear power — and in particular, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). In political speeches, policy documents, and newspaper editorials, the word "nuclear" has acquired a fresh, almost romantic glow, as though a technology once synonymous with catastrophe at Chernobyl and Fukushima has been quietly reinvented.  To be sure, the challenges of climate change and India's growing electricity demand are real and urgent. But enthusiasm is not a substitute for analysis. A hard look at the global evidence, the domestic cost picture, and the practical hurdles of nuclear deployment raises questions that this national conversation urgently needs to confront.

Beyond the 'silent relocation' narrative in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts

By Dr. Mohammad Asaduzzaman*  In recent years, a narrative has emerged from the rugged and forested terrain of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), portraying the region as the site of a “silent relocation” — a mass forced migration of Bangladesh’s non-Muslim ethnic communities into neighboring India and Myanmar.