Progress in such a complicated matter has to be necessarily slow and incremental. Maybe a beginning can be made with divorce laws, succession and inheritance laws. Even here legislation should not be rushed through Parliament without discussions. Otherwise, such legislation will meet the fate of the farm laws.
—- a common citizen’s quote to me while discussing on email the ongoing debate on Uniform Civil Code Bill that Prime Minister Modi is seeking to pass for legislation in Parliament.
My response:
Why should the UCC legislation process have to be “necessarily slow and incremental “? After more than 70 years since the Constitution of India gave us Directive Principle in Article 44 to go for UCC, why is the Indian State still pussyfooting around it? Only because it is facing resistance from the Muslims and Sikhs now in the modern digital era of 2023 ? !
Well , conversely, wasn’t the codification of Hindu personal laws through the Hindu Codes bulldozed through as legislation by Jawaharlal Nehru in just about a decade between 1941 and 1955 ? “ It stipulated that the Hindu Code would apply to anyone who was not a Muslim, Parsi, Christian or Jew, and asserted that all Hindus would be governed under a uniform law.”
So, why should the secularisation and uniformization of the Hindu personal laws in a predominantly Hindu nation be accomplished post-haste but with regard to Minorities personal laws the process should be “slow and incremental” and deferred “until Thy Kingdom come !”???
The anti-Modi brigade today is baying for his blood while accusing him of trying to introduce UCC only to “divide the country” and exploit such division for electoral advantage.
Well , I ask this question then : Was Jawaharlal Nehru too resorting to the same divisive stratagem back in 1952 general elections?
In 1951–52, India held its first general elections. Nehru made the Hindu Code Bill one of his top campaign initiatives, declaring that should the Indian National Congress win, he would succeed in getting it passed through parliament. Congress won sweeping victories, with Nehru reinstated as prime minister, and he began a comprehensive effort to devise a Bill that could be passed. Nehru split the Code Bill into four separate bills, including the Hindu Marriage Act, the Hindu Succession Act, the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, and the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act. These were met with significantly less opposition, and between the years of 1952 and 1956, each was effectively introduced in and passed by Parliament.”
Well what is sauce for Nehru’s goose is not sauce for Modi’s gander ?
Sudarshan Madabushi
Very very clearly presented with relevant factors and precedence. Ironically it is Nehru’s Family is creating these bottlenecks