The BJP on Tuesday hit out at the Congress and other Opposition parties for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stand on the UCC, saying it is there in the Constitution as a directive principle of state policy and there is a Supreme Court "decision" also in this regard.

The Congress attacked Modi after he made a strong pitch for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) at an event in Bhopal on Tuesday and said he should first talk about poverty, price rise and unemployment in the country. The RJD said the prime minister should not make such issues an instrument of "dog-whistle politics".

Slamming the Opposition parties, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav said, "This (UCC) is written in our Constitution. In Article 44 of the Constitution, it has been mentioned as the directive principle of state policy. There is a Supreme Court decision also in this regard."

"There should not be any discrimination. There should not be any discrepancy, Right to Justice should be ensured to everybody, including those who are exploited, deprived and oppressed in society. There should be equality in society," he told a press conference here.

On Opposition parties accusing the BJP of trying to create a division among Muslims by wooing the Pasmanda Muslim community, Yadav said they should be "ashamed" of not doing anything for those belonging to the "exploited, deprived and oppressed" sections of society.

There are extremely backward sections among the backward classes, the BJP leader noted and attacking the Opposition parties, said those pursuing vote bank politics in their name, have "never" paid attention to them.

"Why does it trouble the Opposition when the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi has been making efforts to change the lives of those exploited, deprived and oppressed?" he asked.

"They (Opposition parties) should rather be ashamed as they never did anything for the OBC (Other Backward Classes). The Pasmanda community also comes under OBC. For a long time, the Pasmanda community has been ignored," Yadav said.

During the Bhopal event, Prime Minister Modi, while making a strong pitch for the UCC, said the Constitution also mentions of having equal rights for all citizens.

Modi also said the BJP has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics and alleged that the Opposition is using the issue of UCC to mislead and provoke the Muslim community.

Pasmanda Muslims, who are backward, are not even treated as equal because of the vote bank politics, the prime minister said.

'Pasmanda', a term for backward classes among Muslims, often finds a mention in Prime Minister Modi's speeches, at party forum as well as government events, and how the government has worked for the deprived without any discrimination.

Reacting to Modi's remark on the UCC, Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal said the prime minister can say anything, but "he has to answer the real questions of this country - unemployment, price rise and Manipur issue".

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, "We are seeing that work is being done to instigate such people in the name of Uniform Civil Code. If there is one law for one member in a house and another for the other, will the house be able to run? So how will the country be able to run with such a dual system?" Hearing the prime minister makes one feel that he is looking for occasions to make "dog whistles", he said.

In a tweet, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said, "Will the PM end 'Hindu Undivided Family'? Because of HUF, the country is losing Rs 3,064 crores every year." On one hand, the prime minister is shedding crocodile tears for Pasmanda Muslims, and on the other, his "pawns" are attacking their mosques, taking away their livelihoods, bulldozing their homes and lynching them, Owaisi alleged.

Opposing reservations for backward Muslims, the NDA government has stopped scholarships for poor Muslims, he alleged.

"If Pasmanda Muslims are being exploited, what is Modi doing about it? Before seeking votes from Pasmanda Muslims, BJP workers should go door-to-door and apologise that their spokespersons and MLAs tried to insult our Dear Prophet," Owaisi tweeted.

During the press conference, Yadav highlighted the achievements of the Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the two portfolios he holds.

"If we look at wildlife conservation over the nine years, there has been a 42 per cent increase in the number of tigers...Besides, there is an increase in the number of leopards and rhinos also," he said.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest has completed work pertaining to restoration of 19 million hectare of degraded land out of the target of 26 million hectare of degraded land, Yadav added.

Highlighting the reform measures taken by the ministry, he said, "We know how forest clearances were given during the Congress rule, how some illegal tax used to be imposed then." "The Parivesh portal was launched to provide single-window system for giving clearance. Now, forest clearance is given in 75 days while it used to take 600 days in 2014 (before the BJP came to power at the Centre)," he added.

Yadav also highlighted measures taken to check air pollution, saying his ministry has done "very good work" to improve the air quality "to a great extent" in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

He said the labour and employment ministry has brought several policy reforms and schemes over the last nine years for the welfare of workers in the organised and unorganised sectors as well as facilitated ease of doing business in the country.

"In 2015, we launched the NCS (National Career Service) portal for employment in which about 3.16 crore registrations have happened since 2015. There are 11.15 lakh active employers and the number of active vacancies is 3.5 lakh to 5 lakh," he said Terming the e-Shram portal, launched in 2021, as one of the "major" initiatives of the labour ministry, Yadav said about 29 crore workers from the unorganised sector are registered in the portal in over more than 400 occupations.

"For the first time, the government has created such a huge database and deliberations are on for integration of our portals to take the government's welfare programmes to them," he added.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.