Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday assured Muslim Personal Law Board representatives, who expressed concern over the threat to their rights due to the moves by the Centre to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), that his government would protect the rights of minorities.
The delegation of the board met him on Wednesday and expressed concern about the threat to the rights of Muslims and the Muslim Personal Law due to the moves to implement the UCC. The previous Law Commission had rejected the Union government’s proposal in this regard saying that implementation of the UCC was not feasible in this diverse country. But now the Centre had asked the present Law Commission to review the matter again, the representatives of the board said.
Accordingly, they pointed out that, the Law Commission was collecting the opinion from the public. On behalf of the board, more than one crore people had signed the petition against the implementation of the UCC and the petition had been sent to the Law Commission, the board representatives said.
The Chief Minister said, “We would respond to the Centre after the publication of the draft UCC. Our government will never allow suppression of minorities’ rights.” He alleged the Centre was creating unnecessary controversy in this regard keeping in mind the fast approaching Lok Sabha polls.
The delegation included leaders such as the former Rajya Sabha Vice-Chairman K. Rahman Khan, Housing and Minority Welfare Minister B.Z. Jameer Ahmed Khan, Legislative Council Chief Whip Saleem Ahmed, MLA Rizwan Arshad, and political secretary to the Chief Minister Nazir Ahmed.
