Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the Congress during the debate on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill in the Assembly, accusing the opposition party of abandoning its constitutional legacy and surrendering to “communal forces”.
Participating in the discussion before the passage of the UCC Bill, Sarma claimed that the idea of a Uniform Civil Code was not originally associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the RSS, but had long been part of the vision of leaders of the Indian National Congress during the freedom movement.
“These efforts towards a Uniform Civil Code did not begin with the BJP or the RSS. Congress leaders during the freedom struggle had also dreamt of implementing a Uniform Civil Code in the country,” the Chief Minister said in the House. However, Sarma alleged that the present-day Congress had deviated from the ideological path laid down by leaders such as Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
“Today’s Congress is no longer the Congress of Rajendra Prasad or Sardar Patel. The party has lost the courage to speak about secularism,” he remarked. The Chief Minister further accused the Congress of prioritising religious considerations over constitutional principles while opposing the proposed UCC legislation.
“The responsibility of Congress was to represent the Constitution. Instead, today the party is only speaking about Shariat and the Quran,” Sarma alleged. He maintained that the Indian Constitution itself envisaged the eventual implementation of a Uniform Civil Code and asserted that the framers of the Constitution had expected governments to gradually move towards a common civil framework.
“The Constitution has clearly directed that, as the nation progresses, India should move towards implementing a Uniform Civil Code,” he said. Sarma also accused the Congress of aligning itself with what he termed “communal forces” in states such as Assam and Kerala for political reasons.
According to the Chief Minister, the party no longer had the confidence to speak equally about all religions and had narrowed its political discourse to selective religious issues. The BJP-led Assam government has defended the proposed UCC as a measure to ensure equality and uniform civil rights, while the Congress and other opposition parties have opposed several provisions of the Bill.