National People’s Party (NPP) national president and chief minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday said that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is something which cannot be accepted by his party.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said, “As a political party, we are very clear that UCC is something that cannot be accepted by NPP.”
He said that the particular UCC Bill is a private member Bill and it is not a government Bill and hence there was no specific information that this particular Bill was brought in.
Sangma said that the UCC and the kind of approach that is there will very extremely and in a negative manner impact the culture and the way of life of the tribes of the Northeast especially amongst the matrilineal society like in the state of Meghalaya.
He said there may be certain areas where the central government wants certain things to be done, certain concerns are there which we are not aware of but anything that happens should not affect the culture and the way of life of the people of Meghalaya.”
Sangma said, “UCC would mean that how would the property be transferred to the children, so if the UCC says that it has to go to the eldest son like is done in that other parts of the country but it doesn’t go with the culture of the state where we give it to the youngest daughter in many tribes.
Hence, these kinds of conditions are there which need to be discuss in details and hence we don’t know what kind of Bill will ultimately come out if it comes out by the government. So we cannot say right now without seeing the actual bill that government will come out with as this is just a private member’s bill, it is difficult to say.”
He added, “But the whole concept of UCC is something if it goes in toto and it was going to be a uniform means it is going to be a strict uniform where they will change the cultural practices of the state of Meghalaya then obviously that’s something that we as a state, as a party cannot accept it.”
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajasthan MP Kirodi Lal Meena introduced The Uniform Civil Code in India Bill, 2020 in the Rajya Sabha in December as a Private Member Bill amid fervent opposition. The opposition parties protested against the introduction of the Bill saying, if passed, it will “destroy” the social fabric and unity in diversity that is prevalent in the country.