BJP brought UCC in U’khand to divert attention from real issues: Ex-CM Rawat

DEHRADUN: Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat said the BJP brought the UCC Bill in the State to divert the public’s attention from real issues like inflation and unemployment.

BJP first tried to bring a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) at the national level and assigned the matter to the National Law Commission but the tribal communities in various states, including the northeast, opposed it as they felt it was an interference with their traditions, Harish Rawat told PTI-Bhasha in an interview on Friday.

It was also opposed by the Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee and in the South, he said.

Rawat alleged that the appointment of Droupadi Murmu as the President of India was aimed at assuaging the resentment among the tribal communities over the UCC.

"After the BJP failed to bring the UCC at the national level, it brought a bill on it in Uttarakhand to divert people's attention from real issues like inflation and unemployment," he said.

When asked why Uttarakhand was chosen for an experiment on UCC, Rawat said Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was keen on bringing it, and being a small State where the size of the minority population was also small, the party did not expect a big reaction.

With famous Hindu pilgrimages like Badrinath and Kedarnath situated in the state and people from all over the country visiting the state, it was easier for the party to polarise them, he said.

"Uttarakhand is an ideal state for tokenism," Rawat said.

The senior Congress leader said the UCC in Uttarakhand poses a big threat to the country as the community, which comes to power in different states, may try to interfere with the traditions and practices of other communities.

He cited in this context the instances of the Kukis and Maitis in Manipur or Dravid and Hindus in Tamil Nadu.

"In India, various communities follow their own customs and rituals and such a law can be used to infringe upon the customs and rituals of a particular community. It poses a big danger which is not good for the country," Rawat said.

He admitted that the BJP's promise of implementing the UCC if voted to power was one of the decisive factors in the party's victory in the 2022 assembly polls.

CM Dhami had announced implementing the UCC on the last day of campaigning for the 2022 assembly polls.

It had made history by winning the polls for the second time in a row with an impressive tally of 47 out of a total of 70 assembly seats.

He said people of the state would not gain anything from the UCC.

“Those from Uttarakhand living in other states will be bound by dual laws, the pressure on daughters-in-law from their husbands' families to demand their shares in paternal property will increase and so will the risk of families coming apart,” he said.

Marriage and inheritance rights for Hindus have already been there while tribal communities have been exempted from its purview, he said.

"Has this law been brought for live-in relationships?" he asked.

"The basic purpose of UCC is to infringe upon the personal laws of the minorities on marriage, inheritance and adoption," he said.

Rawat also alleged that the legislation was passed in the state assembly in a hurry without giving Congress members enough time to study the lengthy document.

Their proposal for referring it to a select committee of the House was also turned down, he said, adding that the government had it passed in the House on the strength of the majority.

The former Union minister said the UCC has been brought purely for political reasons in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls so that public attention could be diverted from real issues like unemployment, inflation, worsening law and order, harassment of women and corruption.

"It is just a political stunt,'' he said.

On the recent violence in Haldwani, Rawat said it was the result of the social environment building in the state.

"When one community feels that it is being targeted, such a reaction becomes unavoidable," he said.