For the BJP, the Uniform Civil Code is Simply a Stick to Bash Muslims With
In 1951, India's first Law Minister Dr. B.R. Ambedkar fought to get our parliament to pass the Hindu Code Bill, a bill he had drafted with great love and care which would have granted equal rights to Hindu women denied to them by tradition and religious practice. Had this bill been passed in time the logical next step would have been to draft a similar bill for Muslims and thus pave the way to work towards a uniform civil code. The Bill was blocked and Dr. Ambedkar resigned in disgust.
Guess who opposed, tooth and nail, the passage of the Hindu Code Bill? It was the Hindu right wing, both in opposition and on the ruling benches, the very leaders that BJP and the Sangh Parivar still hold dear to their hearts.
In 1987 BJP leaders in Rajasthan like Rajmata Scindia endorsed Sati and clamoured for a temple to Sati Roop Kanwar!
And yet in the election Manifesto that the BJP released today they have the temerity to promise a uniform civil code. In their hands this is not a bill that promises equal rights for women but merely yet another stick to beat Muslims with.
Most sensible Indians would support gender just laws for women including a code that grants equity in matters of inheritance, marriage and divorce but this move is unacceptable from a party that is supremacist and regressive, asserting narrow and authoritarian notions of ‘One Nation, One Language and One Culture.’
It is ludicrous, therefore, for the BJP to speak of gender justice and their concern for the rights of Muslim women!
