Uniform Civil Code – caught between Politics and Practice

 Article 15 of the Constitution of India clearly mentions that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of race, religion, caste, sex, and place of birth.

Article 25 of the Constitution lays down that all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely practice, and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health, while Article 26 says that all denominations can manage their own affairs in matters of religion.

The singular issue that is always preventing the Uniform Civil Code from being implemented as a law, is the objection to the above issues by members of the Muslim community with the support of those who define themselves as backwards castes, or more specifically; those who believe that they are entitled to special privileges at all times, at any cost. Both communities reject the very concept of UCC because it disrupts their political strategy of special status in society.

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will bring all citizens onto a single civil platform where they have to abide by the Constitution of India, regardless of their religion, caste and social standing. The status of men, women and transgender will be legally equal in the eyes of the law as well as policies, while promoting equality and justice.

And therein lay the problems.

For the Muslims, the Constitution of India will supersede Sharia law. This means that Muslims will have to register their marriages in civil court, the men can only marry one woman at any given time and divorce will be subject to civil laws and not Sharia. Essentially, the Muslim woman will be uplifted to the same status as the men; in all areas including marriage, divorce, inheritance, legal rights and equality in relationship with everybody.

The same will apply for those who define themselves by their caste status. They will lose their “right” to reservations in government service, in higher education institutions and in preferential treatment accorded to them for lower standards of performance. They will also be subject to the same laws of marriage and inheritance as all other citizens.

Essentially; UCC will bring merit to the forefront.  From seats in higher educational facilities to jobs in Government to payment of taxes, citizens will have to compete on one single platform of equality. This is not favored by most political parties, because it will destroy the concept of the vote-bank.

We know that the very concept of ‘reservations’ is bad for our social and financial progress. In this 21^st century, a small number of tax-payers cannot be made to keep on bearing the burden of a large number of social dependents who are not, in any way, required to improve their individual efforts towards self-progress, just because they considered as people of “special” category. For our country to be powerful in every field; economic power being the most important, the removal of the quota and reservations system is a necessity.

The Uniform Civil Code will guarantee this. Social equality by law means that individuals can no longer claim special privileges. Each of us will have to succeed through open and unrestricted competition, a process that will allow the brightest from every section of society to succeed to their full potential. UCC will overcome the very concept of differentiation and ensure equality of all.

No doubt, that even the current government will look for loop-holes through which they can still undertake vote bank politics. Regardless of their public posturing on UCC, they also want to keep surviving politically. There is no doubt that our country will soon be governed by a version of a Uniform Civil Code that will ensure some changes to social norms, but whether a diluted version of UCC will be effective in practice would have to be experienced in reality. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Citizens as Political Auditors

 Since 2014, the political scenario in India has changed drastically. While the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in complete majority in the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Parliament) and has a wafer-thin majority in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament), as of November 2022, the BJP is in power in 14 States of India (out of 28) and with Jammu & Kashmir under the President’s Rule, the BJP can be said to have a greater influence there. The balance states are ruled by a hodge-podge coalition of local political parties with the notable exceptions of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi and Punjab, TMC in Bengal and the Communists in Kerala.

 Essentially, at both levels; Union (federal) Government and State governments, there is no real opposition party to observe or oversee the performance of the government in power. It’s very necessary in an active and vibrant democracy that there should be a powerful opposition (or shadow government) to have oversight on the government in power. Unfortunately this is not the case in India. Without strong opposition parties, our democracy has become weak and there are dangers that it may head to autocracy in the future years.

With the political parties in disarray, it’s the responsibility of voters and citizens to assume the role and responsibility of keeping a watch over the government. For sake of simplicity, let us name this activity as ‘Citizens Audit & Responsibility Oversight’ [CARO]. This should ideally start at block levels and work its way up to State and Union level. The function of CARO should be to determine facts about government policies and present it to the voters in a non-partisan manner. It will take time for an effort like CARO to become influential and powerful, but if there is enough long-term, non-partisan contribution by the citizens in this effort, then it can achieve much more that can be imagined today.

The credibility of this model will be in its political neutrality and being apolitical in its work, with no connection to political parties, politicians or political philosophies. CARO has to work only towards nation-building, civil unity and social integration; and cannot depend on support or approval from the government at any level. Its disassociation from political parties would be its strength as an independent auditor.

The above stated idea is not new. CARO has existed in various forms over the last 250 years (maybe more), and our country has always been strong and powerful when citizen auditors are highly active. When the citizen’s participation wanes, CARO fails. In these present times, the responsibilities of CARO have been put onto activists active on social media and main stream media. Unfortunately, both these entities are no longer credible and are known to pursue their own agenda at the cost of reporting facts. 

Readers of this article may wish to start their own CARO efforts and become civil influencers in the near future.

Jai Hind.