New Delhi: The motion to introduce a private member's bill seeking to set up a panel for the preparing the Uniform Civil Code was adopted in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The controversial bill titled 'The Uniform Civil Code in India Bill, 2020' was introduced in the Upper House of the Parliament by BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena amid strong protest by opposition parties.
Meena moved for leave of the House to introduce the Bill which will provide for the formation of the national inspection and investigation committee for chalking out the Uniform Civil Code and implementing it across the country.
The move drew loud protests from the opposition parties including the Congress, CPI, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress who alleged that the introduction of the bill will destroy the social fabric and the unity in diversity prevalent in the country.
"We have a private members' Bill that is totally unconstitutional, unethical, anti-secular. It is being introduced as a private member's Bill by an indulgent government to test the waters in a very dangerous game. This is brinkmanship," Jawhar Sircar of the Trinamool Congress said."There is still time to refrain from making demonstrations of a temporary majority and inflict one sided opinion on a very secular and plural India," he added.
MDMK MP Vaiko accused the ruling dispensation of "implementing one after another agenda of the RSS and BJP" and said,"They have finished Kashmir. Now they have come to common civil code." He said it is leading towards "disaster of the country and its disintegration and minority people are terribly hurt".
Abdul Wahab of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) said the Bill has been attempted to be introduced many times in the past and "this is a sort of provocation deliberately the BJP" and asserted that the uniform civil code cannot be implemented in India.
Leader of the House, Piyush Goyal objected to the allegations of the Opposition members. "It is a legitimate right of a member to raise an issue, which is a directive principle of the Constitution...Let this subject be debated in the House. At this stage to cast aspersion on the government, to use the names of the very members of the constituent assembly to try to criticise at the introduction stage is uncalled for," he said.
Manoj Kumar Jha of the RJD said when the Bill came for introduction on many occasions earlier, the BJP requested Meena not to proceed further and good sense prevailed then. "I am witness to six such occasions. What has changed I don't know," he said, adding at a time when cities, villages and families have been "divided", if such Bill was brought it would further divide the country.
As the Opposition demanded withdrawal of the Bill, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar called for division following which and the motion for introduction of the Bill was passed with 63 votes in favor and 23 against it. However, Meena later said that the he will not introduce the Bill today.
