With Tribal up against UCC, BJP rushes to calm tempers
Centre struggling to evolve a consensus
With the 15 crore Tribal population in the country including three NorthEast Tribal states opposing the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), the ruling party is struggling to find ways to evolve a consensus.
Three tribal majority states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram, part of the ruling NDA, are openly opposing the UCC. Mizoram Assembly went to the extent of even passing a unanimous resolution opposing the UCC. The Chief Minister said that the UCC will disintegrate the country. The reasons are political too as the Mizoram Assembly is set to go to polls in November-December this year.
The resignation of Harsh Chouhan, Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), eight months ahead of his tenure has added to the woes of the government. Chouhan stoutly opposed the move to encroach the tribal land. He said that he was “fulfilling its constitutional mandate of protecting tribal rights and would continue to do so”. Harsh Chouhan was a staunch RSS -BJP loyalist.
In addition, as many as 30 tribal organizations have also expressed fear that the UCC will dilute the tribal customary laws. They fear that two tribal laws -- the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act -- may get affected due to UCC. The two laws protect tribal lands.
The BJP's ST Morcha chief Samir Oraon told Lokmat, “there are 15 crore tribal population in the country and efforts are being made and discussions are going on in various forums.” He won't say anything except for adding, "We are in the first stage of discussions on the UCC.”
The BJP leadership is trying hard to put contentious issues under the carpet and evolve a workable UCC acceptable to all. The Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Sushil Modi tried to douse the anger by saying that the Tribal may be kept out of the UCC. But experts say that it is easier said than done.
