TDP, Shiv Sena back Amit Shah's UCC move

New Delhi: After Home Minister Amit Shah's assertion that a Uniform Civil Code will be implemented in all NDA-ruled states before 2029, key NDA partners TDP and Shiv Sena on Tuesday backed the BJP on the issue.

Another BJP ally JD(U) gave a guarded response, saying it will study the Uniform Civil Code Bill and will "not oppose it for no reason". The support of the TDP with 16 Lok Sabha MPs, the Shiv Sena with 13 and the JD-U with 12 is crucial for the Narendra Modi government.

While the TDP is in power in Andhra Pradesh along with Jana Sena and BJP, the BJP shares power with the JD(U) in Bihar and the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. TDP's Andhra Pradesh president Palla Srinivasa Rao said in Amaravati that it is bound by the Union Home Minister's statement on UCC as an NDA partner. "Yes, I have seen our Union Home Minister's statement on UCC and as NDA partners we are bound to go by his statement," Rao, who represents Gajuwaka assembly constituency, said.

Though there is criticism over UCC, he noted that it "strengthens the unity of the country and doesn't show much gender bias". "And critics, of course, some say that it (UCC) infringes on religious freedom. Our country is culturally diverse. But we always think that this UCC will strengthen and unify the country," he said.

"So, we will be going by our home minister's statement being NDA partners," he added.

CPI(M) state secretary V Srinivas Rao, however, claimed that the BJP is resorting to UCC politics to divert the country’s attention as it is “facing heat from the new generation (Gen Z) due to unemployment” and other reasons, especially in the backdrop of the recent Jantar Mantar student protest movement. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary also said the JD(U) will study the Uniform Civil Code Bill and will “not oppose it for no reason” if provisions are unexceptionable.

The former state JD(U) president made the statement while addressing a press conference at the party office. He was replying to queries about the political turbulence that has ensued after Shah’s assertion that UCC will be implemented “across 22 NDA-ruled states by 2029”.

On Monday, senior JD(U) leader and Phulwari Sharif MLA Shyam Rajak had spoken out strongly against the UCC, claiming that he was expressing a view in line with the stand taken earlier by party supremo Nitish Kumar, who had told the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, “we will support the Bill in Parliament but are opposed to its implementation in Bihar”.

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