Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday announced that if re-elected to power, his government would introduce a uniform civil code in the hill state.
“The new government in Uttarakhand will constitute a committee of legal and other experts to draft a uniform civil code. It will have the same laws for marriage, divorce, land, other properties and inheritance for all, irrespective of religion,” Dhami told reporters in Khatima.
“This will be a step towards strengthening the Constitution and realising the dream of the makers of our Constitution,” he read out from a printed paper.
Implementing a uniform civil code has been one of the three cornerstones of BJP politics, of which it has already achieved two: building a Ram temple on the plot where the Babri Masjid stood in Ayodhya, and revoking Article 370 provisions that gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status.
Constitutional expert and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha told this newspaper that a state Assembly could enact a uniform civil code since the subject was on the concurrent list. Such an act would require the President’s assent, he added.
Dhami also posted a tweet on the subject in Hindi at 11.37am, a few hours before campaigning for the February 14 Assembly elections in Uttarakhand ended, along with a poster that advocated a uniform civil code.
Reacting to Dhami’s tweet, a Twitter user, Anand Mishra, wrote: “No use of such… code… focus should be on employment and high rate (prices).”
Several other tweeters said the state government should focus on land reforms instead of engaging in bluster.
The BJP’s youth wing organised small processions in every district of Uttarakhand, the marchers chanting: “Uniform civil code ki karo tayari, aa rahe hain bhagwa dhari (Get ready for a uniform civil code, the saffron brigade is coming).”
While Article 44 of the Constitution says the government should try to work out a uniform civil code for the entire country, the Centre told Parliament last year that it may not be possible to lay down a “rigid time frame” for such a step.
This was because of the “sensitivity involved” and the need for an “in-depth study”, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju had told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply, adding that the Law Commission had been requested to examine the issue and make recommendations.
Dhami’s comment came on a day his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath, considered a star BJP campaigner, addressed four rallies in Uttarakhand: in Salt (Almora), Karnprayag (Chamoli), New Tehri (Tehri Garhwal) and Kotdwar (Pauri Garhwal).
Adityanath focused on his party’s main rival, telling a crowd in New Tehri: “Rahul Gandhi doesn’t take pride in being a Hindu. Such a party shouldn’t rule Deobhoomi.”
Former chief minister Harish Rawat, who is leading the Congress campaign in Uttarakhand, said: “Hindus don’t believe in bloodbath, which the BJP is planning in the country and the state. Uttarakhand is a peaceful state. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister has already spread poison in his state and is now trying to do so here.”
