SHILLONG, Feb 13: The NPP, which is seeking to retain power at the hustings, has announced its opposition to the BJP-led NDA government’s move to implement the uniform civil code while asserting that such a law would be in conflict with the rights granted to the tribals of Meghalaya under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution.
“Uniform civil code will be in conflict with our constitutional rights under the Sixth Schedule. The moment you say a code is uniform all over India then you are disturbing the indigenous practices and conventions that have been going on for ages in the different states of the Northeast,” NPP spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh said on Monday.
The Uniform civil code is a proposal in India to formulate and implement personal laws of citizens which apply to all citizens equally regardless of their religion, gender, and sexual orientation.
“There should be no doubt that the NPP government will raise a loud voice against a uniform civil code,” she said.
Reminding that during the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the MDA government had the wisdom to listen to the voices of the people and exempted the CAA in the Scheduled areas, she said, “If what the NPP has done is not good enough then I think people don’t know what they are talking about.”
“CAA was enacted in Parliament and it became an Act but its implementation in the state is only in non-Scheduled areas which is a relief for all of us,” she added. Asserting to raise the issue of the Language Bill which has been kept in abeyance, Lyngdoh said, “It has to be taken up very urgently because we are now seeing the Hindi language being propagated in mainland India and it is likely to impact Meghalaya.”
She made it clear that that people need to be exposed to languages of the mainland but it cannot be the official language of the state since the Meghalaya has its own indigenous languages.
Appealing to voters to support NPP, Lyngdoh said, “If people of the state give NPP another opportunity with the single largest majority then we will take all necessary steps to protect the Khasi and Garo languages. That these languages will be used in the Assembly is the first step towards that direction.”
