The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has once again demonstrated its adeptness in using pretentious constitutional righteousness and selective championing of various ‘Parts’ and ‘Articles’ of the Indian Constitution. It continues doing so despite its known rejection of various statutes and repeated calls for a ‘naya samvidhan’ in the past, not just by the party but other constituents of the Sangh Parivar as well.
This has been unmistakable in the government and the party that continually swear by the rule of law, yet choose the path of silence or inaction when affiliated individuals and organisations flout laws.
This duplicity of BJP and ministers of the government has become most evident in the continued campaign for introducing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and a couple of other issues at the core of Hindutva. They do so by citing the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), contained in Part IV of the Constitution.
This ploy became visible again recently when the party and the government backed BJP Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan Kirodi Lal Meena’s efforts to introduce a Private Members’ Bill on UCC in the House.
When the Opposition members argued that the Bill could possibly disturb peace and hurt the secular credentials of the country, Union Commerce Minister and Leader of the House Piyush Goyal defended the legislation and the move to introduce it. “I think it is the legitimate right of a Member to raise an issue which is the Directive Principle of the Constitution,” he said.
Goyal added that he was “pained to hear some of the comments which are being made using very, very illustrious names — Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar” and others in the Constituent Assembly “who in their wisdom brought this in as a Directive Principle.”
The BJP justifies its stance on the UCC by stating that it is a part of the DPSP that forms Part IV of the Constitution of India. Article 44 of the book that Prime Minister Narendra Modi famously calls, India’s “only Holy Book”, states: “The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”
This story was originally published in newsclick.in . Read the full story here