“No Muslim woman wants her husband to bring home three other wives,” CM Assam on Uniform Civil Code

May 1: Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma has strongly pitched for implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country. He said, “Everybody wants UCC. No Muslim woman wants her husband to bring home 3 other wives. Ask any Muslim woman. UCC is not my issue, it’s an issue for all Muslim women. If they are to be given justice, after the scrapping of Triple Talaq, UCC will have to be brought,”

“I am a Hindu and I have the UCC. For my sister and daughter, I have the UCC. If I have UCC for my daughter, then Muslim daughters must have that protection,” he said. The UCC is a common set of civil laws guiding matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance and succession for all citizens, irrespective of their religion. Article 44 of the Constitution has a provision for a Uniform Civil Code for the citizens of India as a Directive Principle of State Policy. In its 2019 manifesto, the BJP had committed to drafting a Uniform Civil Code to “protect the rights of all women”.

He went on to say that while the Muslim population in Assam is one religion, but had two different sections in terms of culture and origin. One is native to Assam, where there has been no migration in the last 200 years. Himanta Biswa Sarma said that Assam’s indigenous Muslim population does not wish to “mix” with migrant Muslims living in the state. “It [state government] will take a decision in the future on who is a Muslim and who is a migrant Muslim. There is no opposition to this in Assam,” CM Sarma said.

Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Hannan Mollah on Sunday said that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP’s purpose behind bringing the Uniform Civil Code is to target the minorities of the country. His response came following Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s comment stating, “No Muslim woman wants her husband to bring home three other wives. Ask any Muslim woman.”