PM's UCC pitch a diversionary tactic: Opposition

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strong pitch for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) inflamed the opposition on Tuesday, with Congress saying it's a diversionary tactic to confound people from issues like unemployment and Manipur strife while AIMIM head Asaduddin Owaisi wondered if the Hindu Undivided Family would be abolished.

Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said the PM can say anything, but "he has to answer the real questions of this country - unemployment, price rise and the Manipur issue". "Why has the PM not uttered a single word (on Manipur)? He wants to run away from the real issues of the country, that is why they are only trying to divert the issues," he said.

Modi said in Bhopal that the opposition is using UCC to mislead and provoke the minority community. Hitting back, Owaisi said: "Will he strip the country of its pluralism and diversity in the name of UCC? When he speaks of UCC, he is speaking of Hindu Civil Code. I challenge him. Can he abolish the Hindu Undivided Family? Let him go and tell the Sikhs in Punjab about UCC and see the reaction there."

Owaisi criticised Modi for his remarks on triple talaq and Pasmanda Muslims, and asked: "He has cited Pakistan to justify the ban on triple talaq. Why is Modi getting inspiration from Pakistani law? And why does he have so much love for Pakistan?

Bihar minister and JD(U) politician Vijay Kumar Chaudhary alleged that by touching upon the UCC, Modi was aiming at communal polarisation. "The way the PM spoke about opposition unity shows his worry and bears testimony to the supreme success of our opposition unity drive," he said. RJD's Manoj Jha said the PM should not make such issues an instrument of "dog-whistle politics".

Reacting to Modi's remarks that the opposition is pushing UCC to provoke the minority community, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: "The people of this country are well aware which party tried to push CAA and NRC, and which party was involved in instigating riots."

CPM chief Sitaram Yechury said his party endorses the Law Commission's conclusion following a similar exercise in 2018 that a "UCC is neither necessary nor desirable at this stage".

(With agency inputs)