It is no secret that Congress has been promoting soft Hindutva post 2019. In fact, when it lost, internal reports said that one of the main reasons was because it was seen as a minority appeasement party. (PTI)
If the party opposes the UCC, it risks being accused by the BJP of being anti-women empowerment and anti-Hindu. However, its support to the UCC may upset the Muslim vote bank
The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has divided both the opposition and the Congress, just ahead of a meeting of the parliamentary committee on law and justice on July 3 to discuss the UCC and the Law Commission’s inputs.
A copy of the agenda and consultation paper dated August 31, 2018 issued by the 21st Law Commission is also being circulated to the members and has been accessed by News18. But the infighting within the opposition and more so the Congress has come to the fore. Politically it helps BJP.
For example, Congress leader Manish Tewari has openly said about the UCC that it is not in line with the idea of ’One India’ and the country’s diversity. On the other hand, in a matter of embarrassment for the party, Vikramaditya Singh, the PWD minister in the Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh government, supported the UCC but questioned the timing and accused the BJP of polarisation.
What decision will the parliamentary committee take on this?
The 21st Law Commission’s 2018 proposal paper, which has been circulated among the members of the committee, is the basis on which the discussion is likely to take place. And therein lies the controversy as several contentious points make it difficult for the Congress to make up its mind.
Officially, the Congress has said it will take a decision when the final bill comes. But when the Law Commission issued a notification seeking opinion, party leader Jairam Ramesh said: “No reason was given as to why the subject has been revisited except for the importance of the subject and vague references to various court orders”. Is.”
The Grand Old Party has questioned the timing of the move. It also quoted the same 21st Law Commission paper which had then said that UCC is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage.
A Divided, Confused Congress
It is no secret that Congress has been promoting soft Hindutva post 2019. In fact, when it lost and performed poorly, internal reports said one of the main reasons was that it was seen as a minority appeasement party, while the BJP took on the Hindu. narrative. So temple construction began and the Congress ensured that it did not support minority Muslims at the expense of Hindus – an example of this being the party’s outspoken support for the Ram Mandir.
But now, when some Muslim bodies have expressed their opposition to the UCC, the Congress is in trouble. Sources say that some leaders like Digvijay Singh are in a dilemma. Since he has established himself as the Hindutva face of the party after the Narmada Yatra, any strong opposition to the bill would be construed as pro-Muslim. At the same time, Shashi Tharoor told News18, “It was the idea of Jawaharlal Nehru’s time. There may be some valid points in this but it has to be accepted that all these things cannot be implemented in a diverse country like India.
The Prime Minister made the cat sit among the pigeons
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech in Madhya Pradesh has put the Congress in a bind by supporting the UCC. If the party opposes the UCC, it risks being accused by the BJP of being anti-women empowerment. The fact that triple talaq had won the BJP some degree of goodwill among Muslim women was reflected in the results for the state of UP. The BJP will then attack the pro-women campaign of the Congress in the upcoming state elections.
The opposition of the Congress will also be considered by the BJP as an anti-Hindu party. The fact that many of its leaders are indecisive because of their constituencies gives a clue to the BJP. For the BJP, this is an opportunity to expose the duplicity of the Congress on the soft Hindutva narrative it wants to push.
