PM Modi outlines the Need for UCC in Country, AIMPLB holds Emergency Meeting

New Delhi, 28th June 2023: On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India required a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) since the country could not function with a dual system of “separate laws for separate communities.”

He was speaking to booth-level BJP workers in Bhopal (with the interactive session being livestreamed to 10 lakh BJP workers), an address that plainly highlighted his government’s intention to bring the UCC.

His remarks on the UCC — a contentious issue on which numerous minority populations have frequently raised qualms — come at a time when the country’s political calendar for the next year is jam-packed with Assembly elections in five states and the 2024 General Elections.

It also comes less than a fortnight after India’s 22nd Law Commission solicited new proposals on the UCC from diverse stakeholders, including public and religious bodies.

Modi’s address also had a dual message in which he urged the Muslim community in India to “understand which political parties are instigating them to ruin themselves,” an urging that came at a time when he had been dogged by concerns expressed in certain quarters of the United States about minority rights during his state visit there.

PM Modi said, “Colleagues, Muslims in India must figure out which political parties are conspiring to destroy them while benefiting themselves. These days, we see such persons being provoked in the name of the Uniform Civil Code. Will a home be able to function if there is one law for one person and another law for another member in the same family? Can a country be run with such a dual system?”

Attacking his political opponents for utilising Muslims to advance their own interests at the expense of the community’s well-being, particularly that of Pasmanda Muslims, the Prime Minister reminded his audience that the same rights for all citizens were established in the Constitution.

With the Ram Temple and Article 370 completed, the UCC is the last major basic pillar that the BJP has labelled as one of its “core issues” that remains to be addressed and executed.

PM Modi’s views were received with resistance from the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) as he advocated for the nationwide implementation of the UCC. During an emergency online meeting late Tuesday (27 June) evening, the Islamic personal law body resolved to oppose the proposed law, which intends to formulate and execute a set of common personal laws for all inhabitants of India, regardless of religion, caste, or creed.

During the online meeting, the Muslim body, which included AIMPLB president Saifullah Rehmani, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali (head of the Islamic Centre of India and an AIMPLB member), AIMPLB lawyers, and others, resolved to submit their views more forcefully to the Law Commission. They also completed the documentation that would be submitted to Law Commission during the meeting.