UCC historic step towards building India of Ambedkar’s dreams: Uttarakhand CM Dhami

“Ambedkar believed that social disparities and divisions will continue to exist until there is a uniform set of law for everyone. We also found that personal laws meant for different communities were a source discrimination.

“So, Uttarakhand became the first state in the country to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). It is a historic step towards the building of an India of Ambedkar’s vision,” Dhami said.

Ambedkar did not look upon the UCC as just a legal requirement, but as a social and moral necessity, the chief minister said.

“The UCC will emancipate Muslim daughters and daughters-in-law from being subjected to evil practices like Halala, Iddat, child marriage, polygamy and triple talaq,” Dhami said while addressing the programme organised by the Dr B R Ambedkar Maha Manch to thank the chief minister for implementing UCC in the state.

With the implementation of UCC, a new era of women empowerment has begun, Dhami said.

The chief minister also claimed that Congress governments that remained at the helm for decades did nothing to honour a towering figure like Ambedkar, who struggled all his life to help the deprived and the downtrodden to join the mainstream.

Ambedkar was conferred with the Bharat Ratna posthumously many years after his death by the BJP-supported V P Singh government (in 1990), Dhami said.

The decades-old demand for declaring his birth anniversary as a national holiday was also fulfilled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dhami said.

“A draconian measure like the Emergency, which went against the tenets of democracy, was also imposed on the country by the Congress.

“So, when we see Rahul Gandhi moving around with a copy of the Constitution in his hand, it not only evokes laughter, but also pity,” Dhami said.

Every citizen of the country will remain indebted to Ambedkar for his role in the framing of the Constitution, he added. PTI ALM ARI