A Uniform Civil Code Cannot Be Based on Merely Opposing Sharia: Faction of Uddhav Sena

The Shiv Sena (UBT) said on Thursday that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) cannot be based only on opposition to Sharia, as the UCC also calls for justice and equality under the law for all people. Islamic religious law known as sharia is founded on the Quran’s teachings and Muhammad’s proverbial sayings.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party claimed in an editorial published in its mouthpiece Saamana that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should uphold uniform law by first disqualifying 40 MLAs, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, whose Urban Development department has taken action against 18 former council members from the Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC).

This week, 18 former BNCMC Congress corporators who disobeyed party orders and voted against their party’s official mayoral candidate in 2019 were barred from running in any elections for the next six years. The Uniform Civil Code does not include as its only tenet that Muslims must adhere to Sharia law. The editorial said that the Uniform Civil Code also promotes equality under the law and in justice. It questioned what law it was when “corrupt people, ministers, businessmen of the ruling party” were shielded while opposition party leaders were charged with violating anti-corruption laws. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) investigation into suspected discrepancies in the renovation costs of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s official house was questioned by the Shiv Sena (UBT) as well.

It said that the landowners of Maharashtra had maintained two to four government residences and engaged in unrestrained squandering, with an apparent allusion to CM Shinde. It said that there had to be a unified legislation in this situation. On Tuesday, PM Modi pressed for the nation to adopt a UCC and said that Muslims are being incited over the delicate subject.

Even the Supreme Court has supported a UCC, but those who engage in vote-bank politics are opposed to it, said Modi, raising the question of how the nation can have two different systems with less than a year till the Lok Sabha elections and a topic that is very important to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).