Uniform Civil Code: Now Or Later?

The UCC has been a part of the BJP's manifestos in the past many elections. Will the government bring in the UCC prior to the 2024 election?

- Dr Shaikh Mujibur Rehman

A vigorous national debate has unfolded over the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and is led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The most disturbing dimension of this debate has been the way it is perceived through the lens of it being a Hindu-Muslim issue.

For years, the Hindu Right's propaganda machine has packaged it as part of the appeasement politics of Indian Muslims. Any endeavour to understand this debate would, however, imply that there is more to it than the Hindu-Muslim issue. Moreover, it is not the Muslims who would find themselves at the receiving end if the UCC could be formulated objectively or without any majoritarian biases.

Interestingly, the BJP has presented the UCC as a major campaign issue in the recent Assembly elections both, in Karnataka and, Himachal Pradesh. Though the party has lost elections in these two states, it is determined to pursue the UCC campaign.

In the recent years, the BJP's chief ministers from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and the other BJP ruled states have been more pro-active in this campaign compared to Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Home Minister Amit Shah. The BJP seems to have unleashed some kind of bottom-up strategy to create a favorable countrywide eco-system for the UCC. Otherwise, how one would understand the BJP's decision to present the UCC as a massive issue in Himachal Pradesh, where Muslim politics is rather inconsequential. Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister, set up a five-member committee in May 2022 to prepare a draft. It is chaired by Ranjana Prakash Desai, a retired Supreme Court Judge.