The Congress party on Friday accused the Centre and the BJP of playing a “divisive card” by initiating a debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) ahead of Assembly elections in five states including Uttar Pradesh, for electoral gains.
“If you are serious then why are you raising this issue before the elections ” asked Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, adding that the Centre asking the Law Commission to examine the issue of UCC at this juncture was cheap politics.
He said the BJP could also raise the Ayodhya issue (construction of Ram temple at the disputed site) and Article 370 of the Constitution ahead of the UP polls to create an atmosphere.
“Is it not interesting that whenever we come near a major election, you throw UCC, Ayodhya, Article 370 and you shoot and scoot. Has anything ever been done by the government except this policy of deliberately raking up divisive atmospheres for pure political gains ” he asked.
On UCC, Mr Singhvi said, “We have said repeatedly that this is a matter which must be supported by near unanimous universal consensus or pre-dominant consensus, which must be generated amongst the political parties, stakeholders and all diverse elements.
“Certainly, if genuine efforts are made to generate that consensus, a time may arise when something can be done in that direction. But we believe that it is a political ‘stunt-baazi’.
The Law Commission is a non-political body. They can keep on writing about it. There are earlier reports but the real matter is not a reference to the Law Commission.
The real matter is that if you are serious, why do you raise it for the elections ”
The BJP is going back to the basics by initiating a debate on these three issues (UCC, Ayodhya, Article 370), which have been part of its Hindutva agenda after realising that it can’t win elections on the development plank alone, Congress insiders said.
Although the Congress is not opposed to the UCC per se, it feels this cannot be done without consensus and the government has to work seriously on it.
The five states that are going to polls next year are Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and perhaps Gujarat. And the Hindutva agenda is relevant in UP, Gujarat and Uttarakhand.
Meanwhile ridiculing the government’s “Acchhe Din” definition as “Do corruption with impunity, we are here to protect you”, Mr Singhvi drew attention to huge scams in PDS and mining in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, Vyapam in Madhya Pradesh, the GSPC scam in Gujarat, besides the land scam in Maharashtra. The BJP has been in power in all these states but is not taking any action against those involved in them, he said.