The view at a meeting of the Congress’s Parliamentary Strategy Group chaired by Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi and attended by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders was that the party should not oppose much-needed reforms in personal laws such as “equality of inheritance”. That aside, most of the leaders and the party continue to hold the view that the UCC could be an assault on diversity.
Most of the leaders who attended the meeting felt the UCC is being used by the Government as a diversionary tactic and an attempt at dog whistle politics and argued that the Congress should not walk into the BJP “trap” on the basis of mere statements. The consensus was that the party should wait for the Government to come out with a Bill. Some of the leaders from the Hindi heartland, sources said, were not strident in their opposition to the UCC at the meeting.
Besides Gandhi and Kharge, the meeting was attended by MPs and leaders like P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, Pramod Tiwari, Randeep Surjewala, Shaktisinh Gohil, Deepender Hooda and Syed Naseer Hussain. The meeting was held to firm up the party’s strategy for the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which will begin on July 20.
On Monday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, headed by BJP’s Sushil Kumar Modi, has convened a meeting of the panel to hear the views of the Department of Legal Affairs, Legislative Department and the Law Commission of India on the notice issued by the Law Commission inviting views of stakeholders on the UCC.
Sources said the Congress will not leave its allies “high and dry” by changing its position on the UCC but will wait to see the fine print of the Bill to announce its stand. “There was not much division politically and otherwise in our opposition to the UCC. But the question is where is the text? We don’t know what laws they will override. Has there been any consultation…so we will wait,” a senior leader, who attended the meeting, told The Sunday Express.
ExplainedA political minefield
THE Congress is opposed to a common civil code but is adopting a cautious stand knowing well that the issue is a political minefield. It does not want to give the BJP an opportunity to center the political narrative on the issue in the absence of anything concrete like a Bill.
“At the same time… we know that there are issues in personal laws like equality of inheritance rights in all religions. Meaningful reforms of personal laws are not going to be opposed. But we are against assault on diversity as a whole. It is not just about Muslims. There are many issues… The customs and traditions of tribals… even in Hindus… the practices related to South Indian Hindu marriages… in case of Jains… practices such as fasting unto death do not attract penalty of suicide… all these cannot all be pressed into one uniform code…,” a leader said.
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Most of the leaders argued that the talk about UCC is a needless distraction from the real issues affecting the people – unemployment, price rise and economic distress.
Addressing a press conference, Congress communication head Jairam Ramesh said the party had issued a statement on June 15 on the Law Commission’s decision to seek suggestions on the UCC. “Nothing had happened from June 15 to July 1 over and above what the Congress said. So we stand by the statement made on June 15. When there is a draft, when there is a discussion we will of course participate, examine whatever is proposed but as of now all that we have is the Law Commission’s public notice… nothing new has happened for us to add anything to this statement,” he said.
The Congress had on June 15 said that the Law Commission’s move to seek the views of the public and religious organisations on the UCC represents the Modi Government’s desperation for a “legitimate justification” of its continuing agenda of polarisation and diversion from its “glaring failures”.
The meeting on Saturday also discussed several issues – among them the “attack” on federal structure by Governors, the situation in Manipur, the “Constitutional impropriety” of not inviting the President and the Vice President to inauguration of the new Parliament building, ordinances including the one on services in Delhi, opposition unity, disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as an MP, the Balasore train accident and the state of readiness of the Railways, protest by wrestlers and demand for holding of caste census.
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On the Delhi ordinance, Kharge told the leaders that the party was in touch with leaders of other parties and will take a stand before the Monsoon Session begins. The party in all likelihood will oppose the ordinance but without supporting the AAP government in Delhi. Many leaders, including Tharoor, told the meeting that the party should delink its opposition to the AAP and the ordinance and oppose it in Parliament.
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