With Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami tabling the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill in the state Assembly Tuesday, the BJP has taken a step towards fulfilling its third and last core ideological agenda, which has been central to its belief system since its Jana Sangh days.

In fact, the UCC and the abrogation of Article 370 – which the party implemented immediately after it returned to power with a higher seat tally after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls – precede every other agenda of the party. These were endorsed as the party’s guiding principles and core policies on October 21, 1951, when around 200 delegates assembled in the forecourt of the Arya Kanya Vidyalaya in New Delhi, where the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS), the predecessor of the BJP, was born. The Ram temple, on the other hand, entered the BJP’s agenda book only at the 1989 Palampur National Executive meeting.

Once the UCC becomes a reality in Uttarakhand, two other BJP-ruled states, Gujarat and Assam, will follow suit – both the state governments are expected to introduce more or less the same Bill.

In Uttarakhand, Dhami had unveiled the introduction of the UCC as a poll promise right on the eve of the February 2022 Assembly elections, saying the “security” of the state’s cultural and religious heritage as well as its borders was important for the country.

The party had returned to power with a thumping majority – 47 of 70 seats.

How is the BJP framing the UCC issue?

The ideologues in the party argue that the UCC is not a populist measure, but rather “a modern approach to civil rights”. Says R Balashankar, former editor of RSS affiliate The Organiser: “For the BJP, it has been part of its core agenda from the Jana Sangh days. This is not for catching votes, nor is it a populist measure, but it is with the idea of integrating the country as one nation with one law, in civil matters like inheritance, marriage, women rights and sharing of family property… It’s a modern approach to civil rights.”

Suggestions for a UCC have earlier drawn protests from a section of not just Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities but also Hindus, who fear interference in their customs. Some argue that a UCC violates the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, including Article 25 (freedom to profess and practise one’s religion) and Article 29 (right to have a distinct culture) as well as the concept of unity in diversity. Minority groups term it as a flexing of majoritarianism and argue that it would affect minorities adversely as they would not be able to protect their identity, customs and practices.

But when he made the first public push of his government for the UCC last June in Bhopal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also centred his argument around “constitutional equality” and “gender justice” – the same way that he had projected his government’s move to declare instant triple talaq a criminal offence in 2019. “How can a country function with such a dual system? We must remember that the Indian Constitution also speaks of equal rights for citizens,” he had said.

However, the escalating noise around the UCC would certainly appeal to the BJP’s core constituency ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, already on a high after the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration and the PM’s bold prediction of 370-plus seats for the party and 400-plus for the NDA. Party spin masters admit that the promise of expansion of UCC would “further consolidate” the party’s core voter base and please its hardcore supporters.

How has the BJP approached implementing the UCC?

Even with a brute majority in the Lok Sabha and its dominance in larger, more-populated states, the BJP has been careful in its approach to the UCC. The party, which faced widespread protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, has chosen not to take it up at the central level, instead asking party-ruled states to move towards it.

State governments in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra also have announced that they would implement a UCC. A version of UCC has existed in BJP-ruled Goa since it was a Portuguese colony.

How often has a UCC featured in BJP manifestos?

In its 1957 election manifesto, the Jana Sangh promised to repeal the Hindu Marriage Act and Hindu Succession Act, but was silent on the UCC. It was not part of the BJS manifesto in 1962 either.

It was ahead of the 1967 Lok Sabha polls that the BJS promised in its manifesto a “uniform law for marriage, succession and adoption for all citizens”. This was promised in 1971 too, but was missing in 1977 (when the Jana Sangh fought as part of the Janata Party coalition) and 1980 (by which time the BJP had been formed).

It was the 1985 Shah Bano case that reinvigorated the UCC demand for the BJP. After the Rajiv Gandhi government brought in a law to overturn a Supreme Court order that had given Shah Bano maintenance from the husband who had divorced her, under pressure from some Muslim groups, the BJP added UCC to its manifesto in the 1989 elections.

The demand for the UCC’s implementation would find mention in the BJP’s subsequent poll manifestos, in 1991, 1998, 2004 and 2019.

What was the BJP view on a UCC under A B Vajpayee?

When the BJP came to power under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996, a government that lasted only 13 days, the party had to keep aside all the three issues of its core but contentious agenda after intense discussions in the party and its ideological parent RSS.

In his book ‘My Country, My Life’, BJP veteran L K Advani wrote that some within the party held the view that Vajpayee should have mentioned the three core issues in the emotional speech he made just before resigning after the party failed to muster enough support in the Lok Sabha. Advani, though, did not agree with this, and felt Vajpayee’s speech had enhanced the BJP’s popularity and prestige.

When a BJP-led NDA government was formed after the 1998 elections, the party had to again keep all the three commitments out of its National Agenda of Governance (NAG) to accommodate its alliance partners.

Later, justifying the party’s decision on the NAG, Advani had said: “The BJP did not have a majority on its own, it was natural for the constituent parties to agree to keep only consensual issues in the NAG. But where does this leave the three mentioned issues that have been part of our ideological identity? Have we acted in an opportunistic and unprincipled manner?… I set out to answer them by making two points. One, a large area of governance does not have much to do with ideology – any ideology – except the overriding principle of national interests. Indeed, good governance in most spheres of national life becomes possible only when it is de-politicised. Thus if any issue, in spite of inherent validity, acquires a strong ideological character – in fact, so strong an ideological character as to make coalition governance, and hence stable governance, difficult – it is only proper to leave it out.”

Why does Uttarakhand’s UCC exclude tribal groups?

The proposed Uttarakhand UCC Bill – meant to create uniform laws applicable to all communities, on issues of marriage, inheritance, divorce, among other things – is not applicable to tribal communities.

It was the RSS that called for this concession for indigenous communities and their practices. The Sangh, which has been working in tribal areas intensely, had sensed the vehement opposition from tribal communities against a UCC. Tribal-dominated Mizoram and Nagaland have already passed unanimous resolutions in their Assemblies against any move to implement a UCC.

At a time when the BJP is working hard to keep its tribal votes intact – which is crucial for the party in a number of Hindi heartland states, and also Gujarat – it does not want to upset the community.