New Delhi: The Law Commission’s recent notification seeking public views afresh on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong push in its favour at a recent political rally in Bhopal have once again spawned a debate on the contentious issue.Contributing to the emerging debate, prominent English newspapers have carried editorials, which clearly articulate the view that political compulsions cannot dictate the discourse on such a seminal matter bound to affect all Indian citizens regardless of their religious dispositions.‘Need for deliberative space and nuanced views’: Indian ExpressThe editorial argues that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot view UCC like its two other promises of Ram Temple and abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, which form part of its ‘core manifesto’.Having delivered to its constituency two of the three core ideological promises, the BJP may want to push through with the UCC with the same enthusiasm before the 2024 General Election, but it must “recognise that the UCC is different”.The newspaper recommends that “intricate processes of persuasion and negotiation” must be followed before deciding on the matter. “…the BJP leadership must recognise that the UCC is different – because it touches all citizens and because it reaches deep inside their ways of life for generations, and their personal spaces. It requires, even more, an engagement in patient and intricate processes of persuasion and negotiation, not the taking of blunt positions in a polarised political environment.”It seeks to underscore the point that UCC does not affect Muslims alone, as it is made to appear in the emerging debate. “It affects the Hindu majority, too, as well as the various other minority communities and tribal groups. Fundamentally, it speaks to concerns of gender equality and justice. But amid a take-over by a hardening identity politics, those issues are in danger of being given short shrift.”‘Hopelessly polarised and always politicised ahead of elections’: Hindustan Times The newspaper’s editorial seeks to bring clarity to the issue at hand “beyond rhetoric”. According to it, the need for or against UCC boils down to two primary “impulses”.The first of these relates to the fear that a UCC will become a “blueprint for the dominant group’s laws to subsume all others”. Therefore, it goes against smaller communities, preventing them from preserving their unique cultural mores.On the other hand, the second impulse relates to the argument that diversity is a “misguided reason” to excuse abhorrent practices, especially ones that subjugate women in matters of marriages, divorces, inheritance, and maintenance.“These two instincts are not incompatible, but merely point out that the focus should be on creating a more gender-just code and ensuring that no personal law is allowed to violate the basic rights guaranteed under the constitution,” the editorial notes.Once that line is established and agreed upon by the stakeholders involved, the HT editorial argues, the government of the day can hold wide consultations before deciding on the matter.It ends with a pithy statement from Constituent Assembly member Naziruddin Ahmad. On UCC, he said, “We should proceed not in haste but with caution, with experience, with statesmanship and with sympathy.”High-time for a uniform civil code: Free Press JournalThe editorial takes a clear position that it is high time for India to have a UCC in place and that there is no reason for different personal laws to stay on the statute books for over 70 years of India’s independence.While acknowledging electoral politics to be the reason for the renewed debate on the subject, “it in no way detracts from the validity of the demand for heeding the directive of the constitution and doing away with the provision of a separate law for a particular religious community”.It holds opposition parties and Muslim public intellectuals responsible for preventing the implementation of “one of the more desirable directive principles” – referring to the inclusion of UCC under Directive Principles of the constitution.The editorial holds the view that the issue can no longer be in the cold storage and the opposition must spell out its stance on the matter. “The issue cannot remain on the back burner, now that the election season is once again upon us and the motley Opposition groups are searching for unity. Let each Opposition group spell out its stand on UCC. The Muslim clergy has spoken in one word: And it is a big and firm no.”
