Re: UCC

["Ash Mahesh" <ash_mahesh@hotmail.com>]

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Administrative Note:
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Week's Agenda: Social Conditions

  Minimum Wage
  Rules regarding Safety of Personnel at work to be made clear
  Introduction of Social Security Net
  Introduction of identity card
  Removal of Age discrimination at work
  Creating conditions so that reservations will no longer be necessary
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>> the UNIFORM CIVIL (NOT religious) CODE or the UCC which seeks to
>> establish ONE legal standard for civic life in India ...

> I would urge that a clear statement is made about what exactly is
> MISSING in the civil lawsthat is hurting your personal interests as
> a citizen

Religious issues do not make the best fodder for our purposes, as you
yourself say, Sanjeev. But I think that to argue that separate civil
codes only affect private and personal matters is a reach. There are two
things wrong with your premise, Sanjeev, as I see it.

(a) Civil laws do pertain to matters which are outside the personal
sphere. Finding a non-religious counter-argument is quite easy, in fact.
For example, separate laws mean that you must declare to the state what
your faith is, which is an imposition on faith itself, regardless of
what it is. In our ideal society, the state has no business to ask that
question. Moreover, laws based on religious mores do not take into
account differences within a given religion. They assume that all Hindus
are the same, all Muslims are the same and so on. The very foundations
of stereotype, if you ask me. Our civil laws are flawed because they are
derived from the wrong origins.
http://www.rediff.com/news/may/28ashw.htm

(b) Separate has never meant equal in any society.
http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/aug/21ash.htm says all I have to say on
this matter.

At any rate, I am quite willing to drop the arguments related to
religion in the interest of greater needs we are addressing. Unless a
debate is specifically related to religion, that's the last I should say
on the matter.

Ash

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