Watch Nidhi Razdan: Debate around Uniform Civil Code can polarise voters in India

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00:00So the Prime Minister's pitch for a uniform civil code ahead of the next general election

00:08has sent political circles into a tizzy. On one hand, it has the potential to expose more

00:14differences within the opposition camp with different parties taking different positions.

00:18So on one hand, you have the Congress that's officially said, well, we're going to be cautious

00:22about this. We're going to wait and see what the fine print of the bill says. But some

00:26leaders like Jairam Ramesh have said, a uniform civil code is not desirable. While some other

00:31leaders have said, well, it may not be so bad, but let's have a consensus on it first.

00:35So they're kind of speaking in different voices. Then you have the Aam Aadmi Party, which in

00:40officially has said, well, you know, we support a uniform civil code in principle, but let's

00:45talk to everyone. But its own chief minister in Punjab, Bhagwant Maan, has actually come

00:49out and compared India to a bouquet of flowers, where different religions have different customs

00:54and essentially taken a line that's different from what the AAP has officially said. Then

00:59you have the Congress's close ally, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, which actually supports

01:04a uniform civil code. But other opposition parties have strongly spoken against it, like

01:08the Trinamool or like the left parties. So that's one part of the story. But the bigger

01:13part of the story could actually be in the BJP camp, because the BJP's allies, particularly

01:19in the Northeast, the tribal states, they have strongly and vociferously opposed a

01:24uniform civil code. India's tribes in these parts of the country are protected by their

01:29own laws, their own customs under the constitution. And so the BJP's allies like the Meghalaya

01:35chief minister, for instance, have said that a uniform civil code goes against India's

01:38diversity and they are very strongly opposed to this law. That's prompted some in the BJP

01:45to suggest that maybe there can be exceptions for them, in which case, how does it become

01:49a uniform code? These are some of the more tricky issues that the BJP will have to deal

01:54with as it pushes for a uniform civil code.

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