Right time to bring UCC, Oppn should refrain from communal politics: Naqvi

Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday targeted the Congress and other opposition parties over the Uniform Civil Code issue and asked them to "listen to their conscience" and refrain from communal politics.

"This is the right time to implement this inclusive reform. It's now or never for this law," he told reporters here and asserted that a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will ensure "equality and justice for all".

UCC refers to a common set of laws that are applicable to all the citizens of India and is not based on religion in dealing with marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption among other personal matters.

The mood of the nation is to make Uniform Civil Code free from the "clutches of communal conspirators" who held this hostage for the last seven decades for their narrow-minded self-interests, Naqvi alleged.

Slamming the opposition parties, the BJP leader said, "Listening to conscience is the only befitting reply to communal politics over a progressive law like the Uniform Civil Code which will ensure equality and justice for all."

'The Opposition parties should listen to their conscience to control the Congress' communal confusion and contradiction on UCC," he added.

Naqvi alleged the Congress' "mistake of the moment" in 1985 became "punishment for decades" for the country when the party "misused" its numerical strength in Parliament for "communal assault on inclusive reform" in the Shah Bano case.

"Unfortunately, instead of rectifying, the Congress is repeating its mistakes," he charged.

"Even Congress workers, people's representatives and members of other Opposition parties disagree and are agitated over the party's policy of confusion, commotion and cozenage on UCC," Naqvi claimed.

The debate over a Uniform Civil Code was reignited after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong push for it, asking how can the country function with dual laws that govern personal matters, and accused the Opposition of using the UCC issue to "mislead and provoke" the Muslim community.

UCC has been one of the three key poll planks of the BJP for a long time with the other being the abrogation of Article 370 which had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir and the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

A parliamentary standing committee has called representatives of the law commission and the law ministry on July 3 on a recent notice issued by the law panel seeking views of stakeholders on the issue of a uniform civil code.

According to the schedule of the standing committee on law and personnel, it will hear the views of representatives of the law panel and legal affairs and legislative departments of the law ministry "on public notice issued by the Law Commission of India on 14th June 2023, inviting views from the various stakeholders on the Uniform Civil Code, under the subject 'Review of Personal Laws'".