"The demand for Uniform Civil Code is a cloak for imposing Hindu Personal Law," Jairam Ramesh said.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has alleged the demand for bringing a Uniform Civil Code is a "cloak" for imposing Hindu Personal Law and "RSS's view" on what women should be entitled to.
"Women should have equal rights as men. Let's start with that principle. All women should have equal rights. There should be no discrimination against women in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance. Once you have (these) basic principles, we can move forward," Mr Ramesh said on the issue of Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The Department of Legal Affairs had in June asked the Law Commission, a recommendatory body, to submit a report on the issue of a common civil code.
"The demand for Uniform Civil Code is a cloak for imposing Hindu Personal Law, which is actually deeply anti-women and has been made progressively more and more pro-women," the former Union minister told PTI.
"But to think that Hindu Personal Law is pro-women totally runs contrary to facts. So, the word Uniform Civil Code unfortunately has become a short-hand for imposing the RSS's view on what women should be entitled to.
So, may be it shouldn't be called Uniform Civil Code; may be call it a gender equality code, don't call it UCC, you call it gender equality law or gender equality system or whatever but the word uniform civil code unfortunately has come to stand for the imposition of a uniformity based on Hindu law, which I certainly would not agree to," the Rajya Sabha member said.