New Delhi: With only the seventh and final phase of polling in the marathon Lok Sabha elections left to be conducted on June 1, leaders and candidates have just five days to get their views across to the electors.
Union Home minister Amit Shah on Sunday declared that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be implemented across India within next five years after consultations with all stakeholders, if the Narendra Modi-headed NDA government is elected to power for a third straight term.
The Home minister also said that the government will implement ‘One Nation, One Election’ as well, and hold Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously.
“The UCC is a responsibility left to us, our Parliament and the state legislatures of our country since independence by the makers of our Constitution. The guiding principles decided for us by the Constituent Assembly include the Uniform Civil Code. And even at that time, legal scholars like K M Munshi, Rajendra Babu, Ambedkar Ji had said that there should not be laws based on religion in a secular country. There should be a Uniform Civil Code,” Shah said during an interview with PTI.
Uttarakhand, which recently became the first state government to implement UCC, should undergo social and legal scrutiny, and religious leaders should be consulted, according to Shah.
“What I mean is that there should be an extensive debate on this. If there is anything to change in the model law made by the Uttarakhand government after this extensive debate, it should be done. Because someone will definitely go to court. The judiciary’s opinion will also come,” Shah opined.
“After that, the state legislatures and Parliament of the country should think seriously about this and a law must be enacted. We have written in our ‘sankalp patra’ that the BJP aims to have a Uniform Civil Code for the entire country,” Shah reiterated.
On the matter of simultaneous elections, Shah said it was crucial for the country.
“The Prime Minister had formed the Ram Nath Kovind committee. I was also a member of it. Its report has been submitted. The time has come that elections should be held simultaneously in the country,” Shah said.
“Our resolution is for five years. We will bring it during this period,” he added.
