Congress treated Constitution as 'private fiefdom', BJP state govts to implement UCC: Amit Shah in Rajya Sabha

Shah charged the Congress party for treating the Constitution as the 'private fiefdom', while claiming that the principal opposition wanted to breach the 50% quota limit in order to provide reservation to Muslims and never worked for the welfare of the backward class.

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asserted that the BJP government would bring “common civil code” in every state, after he thrashed Congress for amending the Constitution to “curtail freedom of expression” and “remain in power.”

Shah charged the Congress party for treating the Constitution as the "private fiefdom", while claiming that the principal opposition wanted to breach the 50 per cent quota limit in order to provide reservation to Muslims and never worked for the welfare of the backward class.

Participating in a debate on the 75 years of glorious journey of the Constitution, Shah said BJP realised the uniform civil code after the Uttarakhand assembly passed an act on which debates and discussions were happening.

“There will be legal and social debates and suggestions will come. We may accept some of them. Then the BJP government will bring a common civil code in every state,” he said.

Shah was responding to a debate in the Rajya Sabha where 80 MPs spoke on the evolution and journey of the Indian Constitution with the opposition members putting the BJP-led government on the mat alleging that the saffron party was taking the country towards “dictatorship” and there had been a sense of “undeclared emergency.”

In his one and half hour-long reply, Shah said between 1973 and 2016, there had been 11 approaches by the Supreme Court and states to have the UCC in place, but Congress-led governments at the Centre thwarted all such attempts.

He said the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) to block the UCC, and brought the Hindu Code bill as a balancing act. But Shariat provisions were not extended to criminal laws and were limited to civil issues like marriage and succession.

The minister said in its 55 years of ruling at the Centre, the Congress government brought 77 Constitutional amendments while BJP brought 22 amendments in 16 years. He cited four specific amendments introduced by the Congress governments to substantiate his claim that those amendments were anti-people and meant for retaining power.

"In the last 75 years, the Congress has played fraud in the name of the Constitution... They (Nehru-Gandhi family) considered not just the party as their private property, but also treated the Constitution as their 'private fiefdom'," Shah alleged, referring to the insertion of Article 35A without parliamentary assent.

Criticising the Congress for bringing in reservation on the basis of religion in two states ruled by it, Shah termed it "unconstitutional".

The minister accused the Congress party claiming that it never worked for the welfare of the backward communities.

He said in 1955, the Kaka Kalelkar Commission was formed to provide reservations to OBCs but its report was not tabled in the Houses but kept in the library. This necessitated the formation of the Mandal Commission but the Union government acted on its recommendations after Congress was voted out of power.