Uniform Civil Code not good for nation, will boycott it, says Muslim Law Board

NEW DELHI: Clerics of prominent Muslim organisations have decided to boycott Law Commission’s public consultation over Uniform Civil Code. Setting aside their internal differences, clerics have also made an “honest appeal to the (Muslim) community to boycott and not respond to the questionnaire of the Law Commission.”

All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), which is defending triple talaq before the Supreme Court, on Thursday rallied clerics of prominent Muslim organisations to claim that “the Modi government is trying to divert public attention from its failures.”

“We will boycott Law Commission’s questionnaire,” said AIMPLB general secretary Wali Rahmani at a press conference that was also attended by clerics of all prominent Muslim organisations — Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Muslim Majlise-Mushawarat, Milli Council, Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees — as well as the thought clerics of Deoband, Barelvi and Ahle Hadith. Although top Shia and Barelvi clerics were conspicuous by their absence, the AIMPLB representatives claimed that they were all on board.

“The fact is that the questionnaire points to the ulterior intentions of the Commission and is an attempt to nullify the Muslim personal laws,” the clerics said. Rahmani alleged that the BJP government at the Centre was trying to push Uniform Civil Code from behind the cover of Law Commission. The move by the Muslim clerics has the potential to vitiate the process within days after Law Commission sought public opinion as part of its formal consultation on Uniform Civil Code.

The clerics made this joint effort close on the heels of the BJP-led central government’s formal objections to the prevailing practice of triple talaq among the Muslims, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court recently. The clerics are up in arms over the affidavit that was filed without consultations with the community.

“Let’s be clear. The triple talaq case is not a BJP-sponsored affidavit. The litigation has started during UPA regime and it has come to Supreme Court during our time,” reasoned a top BJP leader, allaying apprehensions that ruling BJP was trying to leverage litigation to push saffron agenda.

Later in the day, All India Majlise-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi declared that his party favoured responding to the Law Commission’s questionnaire even as he echoed most clerics against attempts to impose Uniform Civil Code.