Prime Minister Narendra Modi commenced the speeches with the government’s plan to implement UCC with an introduction to the committee structure, which will have a proportional representation from Lok Sabha MPs and equal representation from all minorities and women rights advocates. UCC will first be implemented in BJP ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, and will be enforced all over India in three years. Upon being asked about the proportion of Lok Sabha members in the committee by Vijayan, Modi promptly replied that he didn’t need to clarify and that the plan should be looked up.
Nupur Sharma said that the proportional representation will be that of political parties and contradicted the PM by saying that the “experiment” in specific states will last for three years. She also said that implementing in some states first will prevent uprising.
Vijayan pointed out that the NDA just recently started talking about the implementation of UCC, and that it was ironic that the same people who want UCC don’t have a single clue about how to implement it. He elaborated that the CPI(M) initially supported UCC but no longer does as the predominant supporter of the same, i.e. BJP is involved in the oppression of minorities. He suggested changing the personal laws instead which would achieve the same goals as the UCC as explained by the BJP. Nupur Sharma replied that the agenda of implementing UCC was to bring everyone under a common law, and Modi said that implementing UCC in BJP ruled states will be successful as time would be spent actually seeing the effects of the law rather than bickering with state governments such as that of Mamata Banerjee.
Uddhav Thakeray pressed that UCC was required for national unity, and that it will remove the pressure and influence of foreign entities on personal law boards. Gogoi continues by bashing BJP by saying that implementing in BJP ruled states won’t prevent riots by pointing towards the clashes and protests caused by Nupur Sharma’s remarks last week. Gogoi bashed BJP by announcing that the anti-Muslim and that the only reason that they were against polygamous marriage was that it was allows allowed to Sharia law. He said that BJP is in the business of passing bills without consulting any of the relevant stakeholders first. Modi replied that he doesn’t care about any religious scriptures; all that matters is that everyone enjoys basic human rights. It must be noted that Irani said that personal laws resembled the divide and conquer method used by the British.
“Women’s rights are subjective, “said Farooq Abdullah. He mentioned that human rights are subject to cultural interpretation, and that Kashmiris still protest against the removal of article 370. Tharoor added that the government plans on sitting and watching as the introduction of UCC in select states will lead to the same turmoil the nation experienced during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Shashi Tharoor continued by saying that the government cannot be trusted to uphold the dignity and culture of minorities as BJP ruled states have passed laws against religious conversion, which was responded to by stating that the laws were anti-forceful conversion.
Manohar Lal Khattar passes an inflammatory comment when he said that some personal laws didn’t respect females, and refused to list down the referred personal laws. He also announced that the entire parliament will get to decide on members of the UCC committee.
MK Stalin was certainly not taking the matter seriously as he was laughing and swaying while giving his speech. He said that the DMK will support UCC as long as it’s implemented in the same way as Ajmal intended. He added that India should “de-moss” and copy UK’s or USSR’s UCC implementations as the BJP wasn’t capable.
Naqvi reprimanded the opposition for repeatedly taking things out of context. He mentioned that intellect isn’t affected by religion, and that changing personal laws didn’t achieve the same thing as UCC as law making isn’t about accommodating some people more and some less; everyone must be equal. Rahul Gandhi passed a sarcastic remark by saying that “Religious communities will definitely be respectful of other religions.”. In his reply, Naqvi reminded the opposition that protests don’t mean that the action was wrong - it can also mean that some people misinterpreted the action.
Swami expressed his opinion that Stalin was very concerned about the contents of the UCC, and Kejriwal said that BJP was interested in meddling with personal laws. BJP replied to the CM by saying that the aspiration for UCC is present under Article 44 of the constitution, and that changes such as implementing the Hindu Succession law wasn’t taken well by people initially but its results are evident. Kejriwal further added that the government cited article 44 a lot, but didn’t pay heed to Article 35 which said that UCC should only be implemented when there was a general agreement across the nation. The opposition pressed that BJP engages in polarizing Indians which was clearly evident with BJP’s share in Hindu votes rising exponentially through the years.
The moderated caucus that had begun the previous session ended at 4PM. It was observed that the speaker was biased in not letting certain vocal MPs reply to the other blocks.