Over 96,000 applications from South Gujarat submitted against UCC as deadline draws to a close

On Tuesday, over 40 members of SGMS carried the applications in different boxes to the UCC committee office in Gandhinagar and handed them to officials.

SGMS members from five districts in South Gujarat — Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Tapi, and Dangs — had collected these applications.

Aslam Cyclewala, social worker and member of SGMS, said the NGO worked tirelessly for one month to create awareness among the community about UCC and its impact.

Over a hundred members of SGMS had formed different teams in Surat city and other four districts of South Gujarat, he said.

Forms with names, addresses, and contact numbers were printed, and were filled by community people and handed over to the volunteers of SGMS, Cyclewala added. For those who are technology savvy, volunteers and members of SGMS also carried out a mass drive and suggested that they send emails to the UCC committee through the QR code of Gujarat Muslim Hit Rakshak Samithi and Gujarat Minority Coordination committee, he added.

After a month-long exercise of going door-to-door and carrying out mohalla meetings, the SGMS collected over 96,165 objection applications.

Said Cyclewala, “In South Gujarat, Muslim clerics and community people opposed the proposal of UCC, terming it as ‘anti-Shariat’ (Muslim Personal law). Over the last month… people have been made aware about how to oppose the UCC. The government wants to create pressure on the Muslim community, and for that, it is eager to implement UCC in Gujarat. Lakhs of emails through QR code have been sent to the UCC committee from Surat, Navsari, Valsad, Tapi, and Dangs.”

He further said, “Among the 96,165 applications, over 50,000 are from Surat city, while we have also received over 400 applications from Muslims staying in Nandanpeda village in Dangs. There is an uproar among the Muslim community across the state. Majority of people who have filled the forms opposing UCC are women.”

To begin the procedure to implement UCC in Gujarat, the state government had set up a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai. Its other members include retired senior IAS officer C L Meena, Advocate R C Koddekar, former Vice Chancellor of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University Dr Daxesh Thaker, Social worker Geeta Shroff and Uttarakhand UCC chairman Shatrughan Singh.

Justice Desai and her team came down to Surat on April 3 and met several social, religious, and political organisation members. The committee members separately heard and took objection letters from Surat Muslim Advocate’ Association members and other organisations.