Asaduddin Owaisi has spoken on the raging debate of the imposition of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). His belief: It is a ploy by the Modi government to convert India into “Hindu rashtra”.
Owaisi’s contention is that the imposition of the UCC on the Muslims will make the latter “second class citizens”.
Addressing a public meeting All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) late on Wednesday night, the Hyderabad MP said that the government should not interfere with the Muslim Personal Law.
The AIMPLB is staunchly opposing the UCC, which seeks to end the triple talaq system.
But demand to end the triple talaq system was initiated by women from the Muslim community and is being spearheaded by All India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) and Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan.
It was the persistent demands of the Muslim women that the law commission put up a questionnaire on UCC. That questionnaire was rejected by the AIMPLB, which claimed that triple talaq was beneficial for Muslim women.
AIMPLB said that imposing UCC on Muslims will threaten the pluralism and diversity of India. Owaisi, too, in his address, said that UCC was an attempt to destroy secularism.
The vehement opposition to the rights of Muslim women by Muslim religious and political leaders has been strongly condemned across quarters including by those who usually criticise the government for everything wrong under the sun. The Congress and JD(U) sided with the AIMPLB in criticising the UCC.
While AIMPLB claims that triple talaq is as per Islamic laws, Muslim women’s organisations have said that the Quran does not have such a provision.
At the same time, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a Facebook post that a government affidavit filed with the Supreme Court focusses on gender equality across religions and not on UCC.
An excerpt from FM Arun Jaitley’s Facebook post on the government affidavit and triple talaq. Facebook
He highlighted that reforms in marriage and personal laws of Hindus were undertaken by the Nehru government and the Manmohan Singh government in the past. A similar reform in the Christian community was undertaken during the reign of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Owaisi tried to divert the entire issue by dragging in the special status enjoyed by Mizoram and Nagaland. Both the states, however, are known for their progressive, women-centric societies and the problems in these states have got nothing to do with UCC.