TMC joins Jamat Ulema in pillorying BJP over civil code

Kolkata:Trinamool Congress along with Jamat Ulema e Hind today protested against the central government’s stand on Uniform Civil Code and said the BJP lacks the required numbers in Rajya Sabha to change existing laws.

“We want to challenge (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi with all our strength (and assert) that Uniform Civil Code will not be allowed to be implemented here,” Siddiqullah Chowdhury, President of Bengal unit of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Minister of State (Independent charge) Mass Education Extension and Library Services, said.

Two prominent ministers of the TMC government — Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim –also attacked the Centre over the ‘triple talaq’ and uniform civil code issues.

“The TMC stands for unity and secularism. We will not let BJP destroy the communal fabric of our country and state. The BJP-led government should not forget that they do not have requisite numbers in Rajya Sabha to change the existing laws.

They can’t do whatever they want to,” Chatterjee said.

Hakim, too, spoke on the same lines as his ministerial colleague.

TMC MP Sultan Ahmed and Idris Ali had on earlier occasion opposed the move to implement Uniform Civil Code in the country.

A debate has emerged over the Union government’s stand to oppose the practice of ‘triple talaq’ with some leading women politicians seeking its abolition, even as Muslim bodies accused the ruling dispensation of waging a “war” on their personal law.

Though most women leaders avoided direct comments on the Centre’s affidavit, they were critical of the prevalent practice of dissolving marriage through ‘triple talaq’.