‘Reconstitute UCC panel’: Minority community members write to Gujarat CM

These groups have also scheduled a public meeting on March 23 in Surat, wherein renowned speakers will share their views on the UCC, said the people quoted above.

Earlier on Sunday, one of the groups led by social activist Abdul Vahab Sopariwala wrote a letter to CM Bhupendra Patel and Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi and asked them “to reconstitute the five-member UCC panel with fresh members and include some members of the minority community”. The document was prepared by Advocate Zameer Shaikh.

In the letter, Sopariwala stated, “Under your (Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel) leadership, a five-member committee was constituted on February 4, to take suggestions and responses from the public regarding the UCC, before getting it implemented. The five-member committee is headed by Retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, CL Meena (IAS), R C Kodekar (senior advocate), Dakshesh Thakar (former V-C of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University) and Geeta Shroff (social activist). The publicity of these committees was widely done across the state”.

“In Gujarat, Parsis, Christians, Jain, Buddhists, Muslims, and Sikhs fall under the minority community. Unfortunately, there is no representation from the minority community of the state in the five-member committee of UCC,” stated the letter.

“Proper representations from all the minority communities should be there in the UCC panel. A new committee should be formed (with a member) from every religious minority community in seven days. If the government fails to reconstitute a new committee, we will knock on the doors of the Gujarat High Court,” Sopariwala was quoted in the letter. The groups also reportedly appealed to the Muslim leaders of different areas to spread information and request the community youths “to send mail against the implementation of the UCC”.

Sopariwala told The Indian Express, “The reason for the delay in taking this step is that we were working on details of the committee members and found that there is nobody from the minority community. The minority members should get a place in the committee. We are getting good responses from the public in our awareness drive. We are not doing awareness under any banner, but the community leaders work independently with us in their areas.”

He said, “At least 20 people from Surat are involved in leading the awareness drive in different areas. We plan to hold a huge public meeting with the community members on March 23 in Surat. The speakers will include subject experts and lawyers, and they will throw light on UCC and its impact on the community. We are also working with different committees to carry out awareness drives in Ahmedabad and Vadodara.”