New Delhi: Grand Mufti of India, Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad has written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and law commission, pointing out the central issues that will arise by implementing the Uniform Civil Code and requesting for revising the code by encompassing all the citizens of India. The concerns over the proposal for a UCC by the union ministry are multifaceted and involve all the citizens of India, despite religion, caste and sect, He said.
The key points he raised are as follows;
The core value of Indian polity is multiculturalism and diversity. India evolved its present culture by assimilating cultures of various ethnic groups for the last 3000 years. Essentially, the culture, religious beliefs, and rituals on multiple occasions from the birth of a person till the death, marriage, dissolution of marriage, division of ancestral properties etc., are multifarious and different from sect to sect, group to group, location to location, and that anyone in India cannot count it. India has grown to its present stature with all these diversities and multiculturalism.
Different cultures and beliefs followed by the citizen of our Nation do not hinder our march towards achieving any goal or competing with the rest of the world in all the modern platforms and scientific and technological development. In other words, observing different religious beliefs and following various rituals and laws in their relationship does not affect our Nation's growth to its present stature in all spheres of action.
Ours is a democratic and secular state; the rights of minorities must be treated at par with the majority, and their unique customs and traditions are protected from amalgamation with that of the majority within our Constitution. UCC revolves substantially around the notion of accomplishing the ‘Indian Identity.' If we were to judge what the domain of the Indian Identity is, then we have nothing evidentiary to look upon. For different sections, it is different. In a multicultural polity like ours, where one group constitutes the majority, there are severe threats involving the discriminatory behaviour of various institutions.
Considering the enormous size of Indian polity and its multicultural behaviour and also taking into account the apprehensions expressed in the Constituent Assembly by the Constitution framers, the Indian Constitution, to protect the belief, culture, and rituals of the personal life of all the minority groups has rightfully introduced several Articles.
As fundamental rights, the Hon'ble Apex Court, by its Constitution benches through its several landmark judgments, insulated the Legislature from intruding into the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution to various minority groups. "The Basic Structure theory that the Apex Court has formulated has granted protection and confidence to the minorities in India to follow their own beliefs and to do things according to their ideas.
Grand Mufti also said that If the Government or any other agency considers it necessary to discuss any lacunae or deficiency in any personal law, they are free to call on the religious/community leaders and place their suggestions before them. Any change in the personal laws without evolving consensual views among the religious leaders of such a group would invite untold miseries and hardship to the groups and affect the Society at large. Also, that will violate the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. So, everyone should come forward to resist moves to implement UCC, which will primarily affect the integrity of our country.
