On Sunday, Assam’s Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, fueled the debate on the need for a uniform civil code, calling it “a problem for every Muslim woman, who did not want her husband to bring home three other wives”.
“Everyone wants UCC. No Muslim woman wants her husband to bring home 3 other wives. Ask any Muslim woman. UCC is not my problem, it is a problem for all Muslim women. If they are to get justice, after Triple Talaq was scrapped, UCC will have to be brought to justice,” he said.
According to reports, the CM further stated that native Assam Muslims do not wish to be mixed with migrant Muslims.
He went on to say that though the Muslim population of Assam is one religion but had two different sections in terms of culture and origin. One is from Assam, where there has been no migration for the past 200 years. This group wants to be separated from Muslim migrants and given its own identity, according to Biswa.
The chief minister said “the decision on the identity of Muslim natives and migrants in Assam will be taken by the state government”, according to a Republic report.
“A sub-committee was formed and presented the report. But that’s the subcommittee report, the government hasn’t made a decision yet. It will decide in the future who is a native Muslim and who is a migrant Muslim. No opposition to this in Assam. They know the difference, it needs to be given an official form,” he said.
Many BJP leaders are bringing the UCC demand back to their respective states.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur previously told News18 that the Uniform Civil Code was being reviewed in the state after the Uttarakhand government announced the establishment of a panel.
“We have asked officials to review it and determine if it is consistent with the state. It actively came into consideration after Uttarakhand announced a panel for it. We believe the decision to implement UCC is a good one, but we are reviewing it. The message that has come across from other states in favor of the UCC is correct. We are not ruling out the possibility of announcing it before the elections. We will not be in a hurry. We’ll look into it and see what we can do,” he said.
Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami had said that a high level committee would soon be set up to draft the UCC and the communal peace in the state would not be allowed to be disturbed at any cost.
In November 2021, the High Court of Allahabad declared UCC compulsory. So said a single-judge bench of Judge Suneet Kumar, which was hearing a batch of 17 petitions regarding the protection sought by interfaith couples.
In one of these ways, one of the parties declared to have converted to the religion of his partner and thus feared a threat to his life, freedom and well-being.
While allowing the pleas, Judge Kumar observed that the UCC cannot be made “purely voluntary” because of the fear expressed by members of the minority community.
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