Abrogated Article 370, will bring Uniform Civil Code too: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah (Illustration: Suneesh K)

Ahead of the Gujarat elections, Union home minister Amit Shah on November 14 said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been announcing implementation of Uniform Civil Code (UCC) since 1950 in its election manifestos and that the party is committed to its promise.

“Even the Constituent Assembly has said it in Article 44 that whenever the situation is conducive for state legislators and the Parliament of India, Uniform Civil Code should be implemented. It has the signatures of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar (Vallabhbhai) Patel, Maulana (Abul Kalam) Azad and Raja ji (C. Rajagopalachari),” Amit Shah said in an exclusive interview with Network18 Group editor-in-chief Rahul Joshi at News18’s Gujarat Adhiveshan programme.

Those people were not thinking on the communal lines, they wanted law to be equal for everyone, said Shah, adding because of its politics of appeasement, the Congress made it a communal and political issue after 1968.

“Implementation of UCC is our promise from the times of the Jana Sangh and we will fulfil it. We don’t raise it only because of elections. We had promised construction of Ram mandir and Narendra Modi did the bhoomi pujan also. In January 2024, you will get to see the glorious temple as well,” said Shah.

The final judgment in the Ayodhya dispute was delivered by the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019.  The apex court in its verdict had ordered the construction of a Ram temple on the 2.77-acre plot where the Babri Masjid once stood. It has also directed that five acres of land be allotted for building a mosque.

Bhoomi puja (or prayers before construction) for the temple was performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2024 and the BJP claims the temple will open to devotees in January 2024.

“We had promised scrapping of triple talaq (the Islamic practice of instant divorce), we did it. We had also promised abrogation of Article 370 and Modi ji removed it on August 5, 2019. These were all our promises and there were no elections while taking these decisions,” said Shah.

The BJP-led government at the Centre repealed Article 370, providing special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union territories on August 5, 2019.