By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 6 Feb: The BJP has ‘congratulated’ the 1.25 crore Uttarakhandis on the introduction of the ‘Uniform Civil Code’ Bill in the State Assembly. Expressing gratitude to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and all the MLAs, BJP State President Mahendra Bhatt today described the launch of One Nation One Law from Devbhoomi as a step towards empowerment of women.
Bhatt welcomed the public sentiments regarding UCC and said that there could not have been a better place than Uttarakhand to start reform like this, which aims to end all discrimination in the civil laws. On behalf of all the workers and people of the state, he expressed gratitude to all the MLAs for this historic decision.
He said that this law has been prepared after a hard work lasting 22 months. During this, 2.33 lakh suggestions were received, 43 public dialogue programmes were hosted, and more than 6 dozen marathon meetings held. Once it gets approved in the House, the bill will take legal shape after the approval of the Governor.
Bhatt said that this law is going to fulfil the dreams of the constitution makers of empowering women and giving them equal legal rights in inheritance and divorce. Those working to create misunderstandings and spread confusion must have also realised that this law is beyond the debate of Hindu-Muslim and words like majority-minority. This is a progressive law and women and children in the state will get all the rights which they have been deprived of for the last 75 years. Its biggest objective is to ensure the rights of women and children.
Bhatt also claimed that this law is not about taking away people’s rights but about giving them rights, hence there will be no change in anyone’s religious customs and marital traditions. This law, which is proving to be a big step towards social justice, is in accordance with the provisions of Article 37 and Article 44 of Part 4 of the Constitution.
He said that this law is going to cause problems to those who intend to ensure that injustice to women through polygamy continues or those who want to deprive the women of their biological rights to property, compensation, etc. At the same time, the bill will also take care of problems like taking undue advantage of the unequal rules of divorce, imposing the brunt of divorce on maternal power, the tendency to cheat through illegal marriages, live-in relationships, etc. However, some politicians who pursue politics of appeasement of a certain vote bank will be unhappy with the bill.
