Over 11 crore people and around 700 different tribes – it is the diversity among the ST groups, particularly when it comes to customs and traditions revolving marriage, age of marriage, registration, dissolution and inheritance that could be the biggest challenge for the BJP-led centre when it decides on the Uniform Civil Code.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s endorsement of the UCC last week has ignited a discussion in political and legal circles. The Law Commission has said that it has already received around 19 lakh suggestions in the past two weeks and the exercise of collecting feedback will go on till July 13. But while there is an agreement that while the opposition is struggling to present a strong, unified resistance and rejection of the idea, the BJP too will not find it easy to formulate a UCC roping in all sensibilities of communities across the country.
Challenges before the BJP
The biggest challenge for the BJP when it comes to drafting the Common Civil Code, a uniform set of laws for marriage, adoption, inheritance and divorce, comes from tribals and the northeast region.
The tribes of India constitute a numerically small minority, just about 9 per cent of the total population. But their expanse is vast, and so is the diversity of their customs.
In the northeast, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and National People’s Party (NPP), the dominant allies of the BJP in Nagaland and Meghalaya, have opposed the idea of UCC saying it is against the idea of India. Similarly, the Mizo National Front, an ally of the BJP from Mizoram has also said that the UCC was an attempt to terminate the religious or social practices, customary laws, cultures and traditions of the Mizos.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who is also the NPP’s national president, has raised concerns over the kind of impact the UCC can have on the three major communities of the state – Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia that are matrilineal.
In Meghalaya, the Hynniewtrep Youth Council, representing the matrilineal Khasil community, has said it would write to the Law Commission of India against the move to impose the UCC. Meanwhile, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council – an autonomous body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution – passed a resolution last week to urge the centre not to adopt the UCC citing the need to protect customary practices of land ownership, the matrilineal system in Khasi society and the culture of traditional heads.
The NDPP has said that Nagas have been ensured protection of their customary practices under Article 371(A) of the Constitution and has urged the centre and the Law Commission to reconsider the matter. The party has specifically said that the Indo-Naga political dialogue is at a “crucial juncture” and it would be “unwise” to put in place a law such as UCC which will have “significant consequences on the talks”.
The AGF, or Assam Gana Parishad, the BJP’s key ally in Assam, is yet to clarify its position on the UCC. The northeast is one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world and is home to more than 220 ethnic communities, and many fear that the UCC would affect their customary laws protected by the Constitution.
The BJP is also aware of the concerns, which is why BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, in the parliament panel on law on Monday, is learnt to have questioned the practicality of the working of the UCC in tribal areas, including those in the northeast, since their customs, traditions and rituals are different from other communities and the Constitution grants them special protection. This matter was also raised by the Congress MP Vivek Tankha who has said that uniformity will come into conflict with many provisions of the Constitution that includes special provisions for 11 states, including states of the northeast.
The BJP is also aware of the potential implications of UCC on its vote share in tribal-dominated areas. At least in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the maximum electoral losses for the BJP in 2018 came from tribal dominated areas, so the party will be careful and will go for wide-ranging consultation, like the RSS has been advising, at least with respect to ST communities.
In Punjab, BJP’s old ally, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has also expressed its concern over the UCC adverse impact on minority and tribal communities. Several Sikh activists have said they will have a Sikh personal law to talk to Centre about their concerns regarding their customs.
Uttarakhand to implement UCC
Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami was in Delhi to meet PM Modi. He met home minister Amit Shah on Monday, and had a long meeting on the UCC draft that was submitted by a committee led by Retd Judge Ranjana Desai.
The committee that was put in place a year ago, has had around 63 meetings in the last eleven months, and is learnt to have met not just Hindu akharas, but people from border villages, Muslim-dominated areas. More importantly the committee, NDTV has learnt, has also looked into the discrepancies that exist with many laws on the same issues. For instance when it comes to adoption of children, religious laws might differ with the Juvenile Justice Act. Similarly when it comes to marriage, there is the prevention of child marriage act which has been at odds with the Muslim personal law. These contradictions will be removed, NDTV has learnt. Justice Ranjana Desai has said, specifically emphasising that the law is being drafted keeping the secular fabric of the State in mind. Chief Minister Dhami has said that the UCC will be implemented in the state soon.
Challenges before the Opposition
The opposition has also not really put out a clear, unified collective resistance to the idea of the UCC. It is also because some of the parties at least don’t want to be seen as supporting regressive laws that are part of some personal laws.
For instance, while the BSP supports the idea of the UCC, it is of the view that the government should move forward only after taking into confidence all communities, including Muslims and tribals. The party’s stand is that Dr B R Ambedkar had supported the idea of UCC, but it should not be implemented in haste. There have been different voices within the Congress too.
The Shiv Sena has been a vocal supporter of the UCC. Now the faction under Uddhav Thackeray has been saying that the government should not bring the UCC with elections in mind, and that many Hindus will also be impacted by it.
The AAP, which recently retracted its support to the united opposition, has also supported the idea of the UCC. It has 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha and numbers will be crucial to the BJP when it brings the bill, particularly because parties that have supported its moves in the past, such as the YSRCP have opposed the UCC. This shows that there are divisions within the opposition too. There is a meeting of 15 opposition parties to be held in Bengaluru on July 17 and 18 which is when there could be some clarity in this matter.
