‘No Muslim woman wants her husband to bring home 3 other wives,’ says Assam CM on Uniform Civil Code

Underlining the need for the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code in the state, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the introduction of the legislation is necessary to give justice to all Muslim women. “Everybody wants UCC. No Muslim woman wants her husband to bring home 3 other wives.

Ask any Muslim woman. UCC is not my issue, it is an issue for all Muslim women. If they are to be given justice, after the scrapping of Triple Talaq, UCC will have to be brought,” Sarma said while speaking to the media during his visit to New Delhi.

Differentiating between the indigenous Muslims and the migrant Muslims in Assam, the Chief Minister said that the former wants not to be mixed with the latter. “The Muslim community in Assam has one religion but culture and origin have two different sections. One of them is indigenous to Assam & has no history of migration in the last 200 yrs. That section wants that they are not mixed with migrated Muslims and be given a separate identity,” he said.

The Chief Minister further informed that the state government will take the decision on the identity of the indigenous and the migrant Muslims in Assam. “Sub-committee formed and it presented the report. But it`s the sub committee`s report, the government hasn`t taken the decision yet. It`ll take the decision in the future who`s indigenous Muslim & who`s migrant Muslim. No opposition to this in Assam. They know the difference, it has to be given official form,” Sarma said.

Asked about his earlier meeting with Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu over resolving the state boundary issue, Sarma said that the district committee will be formed to resolve the issue. “The meeting has already taken place. Now, we’ve to form a district committee. It`ll go to the field in the next two months and then we`ll start resolving the issue village by village,” he said.

Earlier, Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Saturday said that the state government will constitute a committee to implement the Uniform Civil Code.

The Uniform Civil Code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply to all citizens equally regardless of their religion, sex, gender and sexual orientation. Currently, the personal laws of various communities are governed by their religious scriptures.

The code comes under Article 44 of the Constitution which lays down that the state shall endeavour to secure a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens throughout the territory of India. Notably, in BJP`s 2019 Lok Sabha election manifesto, BJP promised the implementation of UCC if it comes to power.