Uttarakhand Assembly session on Feb 5, UCC Bill likely agenda
New Delhi, January 27
After fulfilling two core poll promises — Ram Mandir and abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir — the ruling BJP has decided to open another front with a special session of the Uttarakhand Assembly on February 5 likely to take up the draft Uniform Civil Code Bill drafted by an expert committee.
CM Puskhar Singh Dhami, in his Republic Day eve address in Dehradun on Thursday, said the expert committee on the UCC would soon hand over its draft report to the government. “After the draft is received, a session of the state Assembly would be convened soon to start the process of its implementation,” Dhami said. A day later on Friday, the Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker summoned a session of the House from February 5.
Implementation soon after draft
After the draft is received, a session of the state Assembly will be convened soon to start the process of its implementation. —Puskhar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand CM
The committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, had completed its report many months ago but the BJP in Uttarakhand was waiting for the right time to accept and table it. The committee’s tenure has been further extended by 14 days after a third extension lapsed on January 24.
Desai had in June 2023 announced publicly that the draft report was being finalised and would be submitted to the state government very soon.
The BJP has settled for a state route to implement the UCC, with its poll manifestos for the last elections in Gujarat, UP, HP and Karnataka pledging the same.
The UCC however did not find a mention in the party’s election pledges in the recently held Assembly polls across Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The party feels the 2024 Lok Sabha polls present the right occasion to put the UCC on the table and ignite a debate in which the Congress-led Opposition would be forced to take a public position. Having fulfilled its core promises of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and Article 370 abrogation in J&K, the BJP believes UCC is the idea whose time has come.
