You Cannot Miss This Flight by G R Gopinath

Author:G R Gopinath
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2017-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

Uniform Civil Code: Avoid Politicization

Many political leaders and ‘intellectuals’ in the Opposition who wear their ‘secular heart’ on their sleeve asked, ‘Why do the Hindus want a uniform civil code? Is it to impose their will?’ They should have posed the question differently and also answered: ‘Why can’t all Indian citizens come under one common civil code?’ Many are well known lawyers and articulate spokespersons, and one can rarely win an argument with them. One can only guess whether they are truly fanatical secularists, a kind of ‘liberal conservative’ or merely political opportunists. You can’t hold it against them if their outbursts are mere politics of the moment.

Similarly, the tone and tenor of the government in power and its official spokespersons, who are in favour of a common civil code, are needlessly strident and aggressive, indirectly pointing a finger at the minority community, who will use it as an excuse to clam up and obstruct the introduction of a just common code. The fanatics on both sides of the political and religious divide can be expected to fight for and perpetuate their obscurantist and regressive customs, and will tear apart society for narrow political gains.

In a society which is aiming to be decent, egalitarian and enlightened, the laws have to be amended accordingly. One hundred and fifty years ago, we had the practice of sati and child marriage. It was fortunately abolished by great reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Though Sati is now no longer practiced, there are still cases of dowry burning, child marriage and bonded labour.

Many of these practices, though they have no legal sanction, are still prevalent in many parts of the country. The Hindus, themselves an amorphous people, do not have uniform customs and practices. There are a myriad castes and sub-castes with their own beliefs. Among the Hindus even today, a widowed woman even if very young cannot remarry, while a widower can. In many communities, he usually marries the unmarried sister of his wife. Whether it is the dreaded ‘khaps’ or honour killings or other ancient practices in many castes, it is the women who bear the brunt of it. And it is the same among Muslims and their sub-sects or other minority faiths in the country. In the name of religion and power, they practice a tyranny that mutilates women physically and mentally.

When the Supreme Court passed the judgement making ‘fatwas’ illegal two years ago, the learned maulanas tried to defend their constitutionally guaranteed rights to ‘practice their religion’. The Supreme Court decree pertained to the case of a man who raped his daughter-in-law. The punishment meted out by the fatwa was for the man to live with the daughter-in-law, the rape victim. One of the bizarre arguments offered was that it was to punish the father-in-law, to live and maintain that girl whom he had raped in his lust, and that it would serve as a deterrent to the rest of the Muslims.

We also have elected leaders from the BJP and

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