JE News Desk: The Aam Aadmi Party, AAP on Wednesday extended their "in-principle support" to Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and stated that there should be wide consultation with all religions, political parties and organizations.
The government should hold extensive consultations on the proposal with all stakeholders, including political parties and non-political entities, AAP national general secretary (organisation) Sandeep Pathak said.
Talking to news agency ANI, AAP leader Sandeep Pathak said, "We support Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in principle as Article 44 also says that there should be UCC in the country. "
But the government should bring in UCC only when there is a consensus among the stakeholders, he said.
"We believe that on such issues we should go ahead with consensus. We believe that this (UCC) should be implemented only after there is a consensus among all the stakeholders," Pathak said.
Earlier, batting for the UCC, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the country cannot be run with "two laws" when the Constitution of India talks about equality for all. He asked how different rules could apply to different family members.
"Will a family function if there are two different sets of rules for people? Then how will a country run? Our Constitution too guarantees equal rights to all people," PM Modi said in Bhopal today while addressing party workers under the BJP's "Mera Booth Sabse Majboot" campaign.
The Prime Minister further said that people are being instigated in the name of the Uniform Civil Code. He said that appeasement politics had left many people behind, including the Pasmanda Muslims.
On the other hand, Congress criticised the PM's vouch for the UCC and termed as a diversionary tactic without going into the debate over a single set of rules for all religions in the country.
Congress leader P Chidambaram said the comparison between a family and the nation to justify a Uniform Civil Code like PM Modi did in his address to the party workers in Madhya Pradesh is flawed.
About UCC:
The Uniform Civil Code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply to all citizens equally regardless of their religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation. Currently, the personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures. The code comes under Article 44 of the Constitution which lays down that the state shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens throughout the territory of India.
(With Agency Inputs)