A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong pitch for a “secular civil code”, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday (August 16, 2024) alleged that the BJP has neither been secular nor civil in the last 10 years.
In an entry on X, Mr. Sibal claimed that we urgently need to become a secular and civil country.
In his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Mr. Modi had said a “secular civil code” is the need of the hour for the country. He also described the existing set of laws as a “communal civil code” and termed them discriminatory.
Writing about these words by Modi, Sibal posted on X thus: “PM: ‘Need of the hour…a Secular Civil Code in this country… spent 75 years under Communal Civil Code.’” “My take: Need of the hour: A secular and civil country. In the last 10 years, BJP has neither been ‘secular’ nor ‘civil’,” avowed the ex-Union minister.
Mr. Modi, in his Independence Day address on Thursday (August 15, 2024), said, “A large section of the country believes, which is true also, that it crafts this way into communal code of conduct.” It discriminates (among people). The prime minister said laws which divide the country on communal lines and become a reason for inequality have no place in a modern society.
“I would say it is urgent that India now has to move towards having its own secular civil code,” he noted. We have lived with a communal law for seventy five years henceforth it is time that we moved to having one based on religion only then religious bias will end,” he said.
