Minister Danish Azad Ansari.
Lucknow: The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to organize "Quami Chaupals" across the state to make people, particularly Muslims, aware of the "merits" of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), PTI reported.
On Wednesday, Minister of State for Minority Welfare and Waqf, Danish Azad Ansari, said the state government would implement one law but added: "only after talking to all the parties".
The only Muslim minister in the state cabinet told PTI, "As the society is progressing, some new requirements arise, and they should be addressed. Every decision of ours will be for the benefit of the public only, and their opinion is most important to us."
"We will go to the grassroots and tell the people, especially the Muslim society, about the merits of the Uniform Civil Code," he said.
The announcement arrives in the wake of the Uttarakhand BJP government constituting a committee to prepare a draft on UCC.
However, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), the leading body of Muslims in the country, has already rejected the idea. ON Tuesday, AIMPLB General Secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani issued a statement saying that the UCC talks by BJP governments in Centre, UP, and Uttarakhand were nothing more than mere rhetoric. He said that UCC is anti-minorities and anti-constitutional.
"This is absolutely unacceptable to the Muslims. The board strongly condemns this and appeals to the government to refrain from such acts," he said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said recently that Citizenship Amendment Act, Ram temple, Article 370 and triple talaq had already been decided and next in line is UCC, which will be rolled out in the next few years.
Meanwhile, Minister Ansari further said that people's faith, particularly those of the minorities, in the BJP has increased. They have realized that BJP works for all sections of society without discrimination. Previous governments in India's "selfish attitude" pushed Muslims backwards. "The so-called secular parties treated Muslims as mere vote banks and left them on their own after winning the elections. Gradually, the Muslim society understood the truth of those parties and started denying them. This is the reason why the BJP is winning even in Muslim-dominated areas," he claimed.