Muslim concerns regarding UCC provisions missing in Uttarakhand Congress agenda

Muslim concerns regarding UCC provisions against their personal laws missing from Uttarakhand Congress agenda

S.M.A.KAZMI

Dehradun, Feb 21

As the slugfest over ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and main opposition Congress over the contentious issue of newly implemented Uniform Civil Code (UCC)  got underway during the ongoing budget session of the Uttarakhand state assembly, the Congress protest interestingly mainly revolved round live-in relationships and completely ignored the minority Muslim objections regarding alleged trampling of their religious rights guaranteed under the Constitution under UCC.

While, the Uttarakhand Congress held a march to the state assembly on Thursday led by state unit chief Karan Mahara against the provisions of compulsory registration of live in relationships as per the UCC but tried to put the concerns of the minority Muslim community under the carpet. The UCC has come into force from January 27, 2025 in Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand Congress has decided to launch a two-month-long agitation and public referendum programme on the acceptability of live-in relationships but the party remain mum on provisions concerning minorities particularly Muslims. No state Congress leader was willing to commit anything on the concerned raised by the minority community. Privately, the party leaders admit that state leadership has been scared of raising any issue which concerned Muslims fearing backlash from the upper caste Hindu population which form majority in Uttarakhand.

The Congress party also propose to hold a referendum and has come up with a form with 15 questions that party workers will ask in a bid to evaluate public opinion since party state unit President claimed that by introducing UCC, BJP government has legitimised live in relationships  which is against the ethos and culture of Uttarakhand.

The UCC has been challenged by various Muslims groups and individuals in the Nainital High Court on the grounds that it violates the religious freedom granted under the Constitution. Some individuals have also challenged the provisions of compulsory registration of live in relations citing right to privacy.

On the other hand, while the Congress has been shy of even talking or refereeing to the cause of the minority Muslims, BJP and ‘Sangh Parivar’ as part of their long term agenda of Muslim bashing have tried to trample on Muslim Personal Laws guaranteed by Constitution. Even while piloting the UCC bill, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the young heart throb of Hindutva forces didnot miss out the opportunity to target Muslims  by argued that the bill would protect girls like ‘Sharadda’ being killed by ‘Aftabs’.

On the protest by Uttarakhand Congress, Chief Minister Dhami said that live in relationships have been recognised by the Supreme Court and the UCC only require such couples to register to protect the girls and rights of off spring from such relationship.

Uttarakhand has nearly 15 per cent Muslim population  mostly residing in the Terai districts of Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar districts which are politically significant.

But despite getting substantial  Muslim  votes  since the formation of the new state of Uttarakhand in 2000 in every elections, the Congress party which has ruled the state twice from 2002 till 2007 and from 2012 till 2017 has never done anything or stood up for the minority community when the ‘Hindutva’ forces started targeting Muslims in an aggressive manner post 2014.  There are two Congress Muslim legislators namely Furqan Ahmed from Piran Kaliyar and Qazi Nizammuddin from Mangalore, both from Haridwar district but apart from highlighting the issues of their respective constituencies ,they have never stood up for the entire Muslim community lest they be labelled as communal.

Interestingly, when it comes to the onslaught of Hindutva forces against Muslims in Uttarakhand hills and their selective targeting  by accusing them of being involved in ‘Land Jehad’, ‘Love Jehad’, ‘Thook Jehad’ and ‘Mazar Jehad’ since 2017, the  Uttarakhand Congress party including its’ former Chief Minister Harish Rawat and senior party leaders have preferred to look the other way. They perhaps fear that if they are seen standing with Muslim cause they would annoy the Hindu majority community. The fact of the matter is that Congress has been wiped out completely in the last three consecutive Lok Sabha elections losing all the five seats and also lost two consecutive state assembly elections to BJP in 2017 and 2022. The party got a thorough drubbing in recently concluded civic elections where BJP residing high on anti-Muslim rhetoric won all the Municipal Corporation polls in the state. Instead of raising civic issues in the civic polls, Chief Minister Dhami was talking about implementing UCC, fighting various types of ‘Jehads’ and preserving the demography of the state and won hands down.

But when it comes to polling in the elections, the Congress party has been getting majority of Muslim votes since the formation of Uttarakhand state. The Haridwar Lok Sabha seat which Harish Rawat represented and in 2024 his son was a candidate had 30 per cent Muslim votes which was majorly cast in their favour. Similarly, Muslim vote percentage  in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagra Lok Sabha seat is 20 per cent while in Tehri Garhwal seat it is 7 per cent. During the 2024 Lok Sabha poll it was estimated that Muslims voted overwhelmingly for the Congress. Harish Rawat who has benefitted from Muslim votes has yet to utter a word against targeting of Muslims in the hills of Uttarakhand while his daughter Anumpa rawat is a Congress legislator from Haridwar getting substantial Muslim votes.

The Uttarakhand Congress leaders have taken the Muslim votes for granted since they believe that the community has no alternative but to vote for them. In the initial year after the formation of Uttarakhand Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had presence in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts amongst Muslims but later they got disillusioned with the party since Congress and the BJP were the two dominant parties sharing power between them till 2017. However, with the advent of aggressive Hindutva politics, Congress has been marginalised in an upper Hindu caste majority state of Uttarakhand.

The Congress leaders of Uttarakhand perhaps do not understand that by ignoring the core ideology of Congress party of taking every one along particularly Dalits, downtrodden and Muslims, they would be further marginalised while BJP/RSS sticking to aggressively working on their philosophy of Hindutva combined with hate against minorities has gained politically.

There are Congress leaders also who had been helping their Muslim supporters of their respective areas like Sumit Hariydesh of Haldwani who helped the community members in fighting the railway land encroachment case of Banphoolpura in the Supreme Court and Suryakant Dhasmana, senior Vice-president of party in Dehradun who had stood in thick and thin of his supporters irrespective of religious affiliations. But collectively Uttarakhand party has always deserted their Muslim voters.

It seems that the Muslims of Uttarakhand have to fend for themselves in the absence of any political support and should be prepared to fight for their own  survival in the wake of continuous relentless economic, social, religious and  and political onslaught by ruling BJP/ ‘Sangh Parivar’.