‘Divisive politics’: Opposition attacks PM Modi for his Uniform Civil Code push

“It is all a distraction from all the current issues. Manipur had been burning for over 50 days. The PM has not uttered a word. Then there are issues like price rise and unemployment. He had been silent on those issues too. This (UCC) is an attempt to divert attention and run away from his government’s failures… he has to answer the real questions of this country,” AICC general secretary in-charge of Organisation K C Venugopal told The Indian Express.

The TMC, too, took a similar line. “When you cannot deliver on jobs, when you cannot control price rise, when you rip the social fabric, when you fail to keep every promise made… all you can do, in your desperation, is to fan the flame with your deeply divisive politics before 2024, said Derek O’Brien, leader of the TMC Parliamentary Party in Rajya Sabha.

RJD’s Manoj Kumar Jha argued that the PM seems to be looking for occasions to indulge in politics of dog-whistles.

“When you listen to the PM… sometimes you feel he is looking for occasions to indulge in dog-whistling. Before speaking, the PM should have read and studied the report of the 21st Law Commission. He should have also studied, without anybody’s help, what was discussed and deliberated in the Constituent Assembly…because those who are helping you could damage you…,” Jha said.

In a tweet, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said the PM considers India’s diversity and pluralism a problem. “That is why such things are said. They say one nation, one election, one tax, one law, one culture, one religion, one identity and now they even talk about one fertiliser. That is his biggest problem,” he said.

DMK’s T K S Elangovan said, “UCC should be first implemented in Hinduism. Everybody, the Scheduled Castes or Tribes or the upper caste people..they should be allowed to perform pujas in any temple in India. So, he must first implement UCC in Hinduism. Why should one class of people go and perform pujas and others cannot even enter the sanctum sanctorum of a temple?”

The CPM said it endorses the last Law Commission’s conclusion in 2018 that a “UCC is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage”.