Congress, Opposition parties will split down the middle when UCC goes to vote in Parliament: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

The Congress and other Opposition parties will break down the middle when the Uniform Civil Code will be tabled in Parliament, former Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Monday. Naqvi was talking to Firstpost on the News18 UCC survey that showed that an overwhelming number of Muslim women in India want uniform laws on inheritance, marriage and divorce across age and education brackets. “The UCC survey shows the mood of the nation. The country has spoken in favour of the Uniform Civil Code. We inherited this problem from the Congress. It had a brute majority of 400-plus seats when the Shah Bano verdict came out. Instead of using that overwhelming majority to set scale right, it used it to make the verdict ineffectual,” Naqvi said. “The Congress and other parties must realise that their internal contradictions on UCC will come to the fore in the Parliament and their own members will listen to their souls and support the UCC,” Naqvi added. Naqvi told Firstpost that the Uniform Civil Code did not hurt the tenets of Islam in any way. “The UCC, as has been misrepresented by Opposition parties, is not an attack on Islam. It does not hurt any articles of faith or religion. Islam has five pillars: kalma, namaz, haj, zakat and roza. Now, I want to ask the Congress etc which of these is the UCC hurting?” Naqvi quipped. What does UCC Survey say? A mega survey on Uniform Civil Code (UCC) by News18 has found that at least 67.2 per cent of Muslim women support the common law for all Indians for matters such as marriage, divorce and adoption. Over 8,035 Muslim women participated in the survey from 25 states and Union Territories. The participants were 18 to 65 plus, hailing from different communities, regions, educational and marital statuses. The promulgation of UCC will mean one law that will be applicable to all Indian citizens irrespective of their religion. The laws will cover personal matters like marriage, divorce, adoption, and inheritance, among other things. When asked if they support the common laws for all Indians, 67.2 per cent of the total women surveyed answered ‘yes’ and 25.4 per cent said ‘no’ while 7.4 per cent said ‘don’t know or can’t say.’ Notably, when the UCC was in talks, Muslim organisations in India strongly condemned them saying it would affect all religions. In terms of educational qualifications, 68.4 per cent or 2,076 graduated women said they support UCC while 27 per cent said they do not support it. Meanwhile, in case of age-wise responses, 69.4 per cent of women aged between 18-44 said they were in support of UCC and 24.2 per cent said they do not want common laws for all.