Give Reservation To Women Legislators First: Sharad Pawar On PM Modi's Push For Civil Code

"It looks like people's displeasure and restlessness have reached the PM," Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar stated.

New Delhi: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Uniform Civil Code (UCC) pitch, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar broke his silence on UCC. He said that the central government should first introduce reservations for women in the Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies before talking about the implementation of UCC.

Taking a dig at the BJP government, he said, "After seeing the current picture of the nation and the displeasure among the people about the current government, I feel that this is an attempt to divert the mind of the people from it."

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Pawar said that PM Modi had become restless after the Opposition parties’ meeting in Patna.

"It looks like people's displeasure and restlessness have reached the PM," he added.

He stated, "Central government has given this issue (Uniform Civil Code) to the Law Commission and the Commission has sought proposals from various organisations. As of now, the Commission has received 900 proposals. I have no idea what is mentioned in those proposals, they did not make it public. Law Commissions, like responsible institutions, should study and work on the proposal/suggestion given to them."

He said he is worried that the Sikh community has a different stand on UCC.

"The second thing in UCC is that the stand of Sikh, Jains and Christian communities should be cleared. I am worried about one thing, I heard that Sikh community has a different stand. I am collecting more information but I have listened to that Sikh community is not in favour of UCC. The stand of this community can not be ignored," he stated.

On the UCC debate, he said the NCP will make its stand clear after assessing the suggestions and demands of various communities.

But before that, reservation should be given to women in Assemblies and the Lok Sabha, which is a long-pending demand, the senior leader said.

On Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's claims about Pawar being privy to the BJP's plans to form government in Maharashtra along with a group of NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar in 2019, the senior Pawar said Fadnavis should focus on women’s security in the state instead of making such comments.

Manipur "is burning", but the Modi government is not taking any steps to bring the situation under control, the NCP chief said.