Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said by declining invitation for Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya on January 22, Congress party has missed the chance to atone for its past sins. Sarma said that after Uttarakhand and Gujarat, Assam will be the third state to bring a legislation for Uniform Civil Code.
Sarma while talking to media persons on Thursday said, “Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) knowingly or unknowingly, they have given golden opportunity to Congress leadership to repair some of their sins. Congress has all along fought against Hindu community. VHP has given them an opportunity to repair sins committed against Hindu community and Hindu civilisation.”
He said, “By not accepting the same Congress now for decades to come will remain an anti-Hindu party. You don’t have to be anti-Muslim, but you should not be anti-Hindu. This tradition was started by Jawaharlal Nehru when he boycotted Somnath temple function, same tradition is continued by the present generation of Congress. In my view they should not have been invited at all, but VHP gave them an opportunity to atone for sins they missed the bus again, I am feeling pity and sadness for them.”Sarma said that Uttarakhand and Gujarat will bring the law of UCC first, Assam will follow them with some modification. “I am waiting for the Uttarakhand bill once I see that, we will bring the bill with local adaptation. We will consider that Assam is working against the child marriage, polygamy, so there will be some Assam’s innovation. In Assam we will exempt the tribal community from the ambit of UCC.”
A bill to ban polygamy will be introduced in the next session of the Assam assembly to be held in February. Sarma said, “We are working hard to bring the bill.”
The Assam government had formed an expert committee to study the legislative competence of the Assembly to enact a law banning polygamy, and the report stated that the state legislature is competent to enforce such a ban.The Assam government had invited public comments on proposed law banning polygamy. The government received “strong public support” for its suggestion to ban polygamy in the state, Sarma said earlier, adding that his government will now set in motion the legislative process to enact a law that will make polygamy illegal.“We have received a total of 149 suggestions in response to our public notice. Out of these, 146 suggestions are in favour of the bill, indicating strong public support,” Sarma had said in a tweet on social media platform X. “However, three organisations have expressed their opposition to the bill. We will now proceed to the next stage of the process, which is to complete the final drafting of the bill in the next 45 days.”