BJP's Sankalp Patra on UCC will create divisions, claims Chidambaram

Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'sultan of tukde-tukde gang' jibe against Congress at a rally in Karnataka, former Union Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday that the BJP's manifesto, especially on the Uniform Civil Code, will create divisions between communities in India.

"Every time they (the BJP) are faced with a concrete set of plans and programmes from the Congress, they will accuse the Congress of being a gang that is trying to break up the country," Chidambaram told ANI.

"In fact, it is the BJP's manifesto, especially on the common civil code, that will create divisions between one community and another, and these divisions will eventually lead to hate speeches, resentment, anger and conflict," he added.

While addressing an election rally at Mysuru in Karnataka, PM Modi dubbed Congress as "the sultan of the tukde tukde gang," alleging that the party harboured dangerous intentions to fragment, dismantle, and debilitate the nation.

The BJP's manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha election,released on Sunday, promises that it will implement UCC if it returns to power after the upcoming general elections.

"BJP believes that there cannot be gender equality till such time Bharat adopts a Uniform Civil Code, which protects the rights of all women, and the BJP reiterates its stand to draw a Uniform Civil Code, drawing upon the best traditions and harmonising them with the modern times," the BJP's manifesto reads.

Reacting to the PM's allegation, Chidambaram also criticised the Centre for "breaking up" Jammu and Kashmir.

"Who broke up Jammu and Kashmir? It is the BJP that broke J & K into three parts and they were on the verge of losing the case in the Supreme Court when they instructed their lawyer to tell the Supreme Court, please don't pronounce a decision; we will hold elections," he said.

On BJP's dropping of the compilation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from its manifesto, Chidambaram said that the opposition to NRC was such that they were obliged to drop it.

"There is so much opposition to the NRC that the BJP was obliged to drop it, but don't be misled by that drop. The NRC exercise in Assam turned out to be fiasco. At the end of the day, when the exercise ended, they found, themselves surprised that many many Hindus had been left out of the NRC. In order to allow the Hindus to come into India, they created the Citizenship Amendment Act," he said.

"Now that they have CAA, which allows the Hindu migrants to enter or remain in India, they really have no need for the NRC," he added.