Because the BJP renews its push for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC), promising to carry the identical in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, former ally Shiromani Akali Dal has slammed the transfer for making a “concern psychosis amongst minorities”.
Typically questioned by different events over its stand on the difficulty that has all the time been on the agenda of the central BJP, whereas it was the latter’s ally, the Akali Dal-controlled SGPC handed a decision criticising any plans for a UCC this week.
Senior Akali Dal chief and former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra instructed The Indian Categorical: “The fundamental character of India is unity in range, as underlined within the Structure. Pushing the concept of a UCC is like making individuals cross via the attention of a needle. This isn’t acceptable to us. The Structure underlines the federal character of the nation, calling it a Union comprising states, and it’s not unitary in nature.”
Former Akali Dal Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Gujral mentioned that, as a substitute of pushing such a transfer, “Allow us to have a debate first for 5 to 6 months in Parliament, in committees at completely different ranges and in society. Why rush it?…. Why push for one thing which creates a concern psychosis, mistrust or anger within the minds of the minority neighborhood.”
Calling concord of “paramount significance”, Gujral added: “In a multi-cultural, multi-religion, multi-linguist society, it is rather vital to keep up communal concord. Sadly, such points are raised by a selected political social gathering throughout elections for political functions.”
The longest ally of the BJP, until the 2 parted methods over the farm legal guidelines subject, the Akali Dal all the time discovered itself on the backfoot within the coalition over the UCC. The Sangh Parivar’s imaginative and prescient of Sikhs as a part of the bigger Hindu umbrella additionally didn’t match properly with the Akali Dal’s personal Panthic politics. The 2 events had managed to maintain the peace by making certain that such contentinous points weren’t raised in Punjab, the place the Akali Dal was the senior accomplice.
Senior Akali chief Balwinder Singh Bhunder mentioned the social gathering has “brazenly” opposed a UCC in a “multi-religion, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic society” like India. “The federal government shouldn’t intervene in any faith. Everybody ought to have the proper to profess their faith,” he mentioned.
Bhunder added that he noticed no contradiction between the social gathering’s opposition to a UCC and help for abrogation of Article 370 of the Structure regarding particular rights of Jammu and Kashmir, whereas the Akali Dal was a part of the Modi authorities. Kashmir-based events see the transfer as a part of the BJP’s agenda to impose a uniform thought of India throughout, notably within the nation’s solely Muslim-majority erstwhile state.
“We supported the abrogation as a result of the Sikhs in J&Ok wished it, being in a minority there,” Bhunder argued, whereas noting that J&Ok was as soon as below Sikh rule, led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
As a substitute of a UCC, he mentioned, the Narendra Modi-led Central authorities ought to give attention to addressing problems with regulation and order, unemployment and inflation.