Ishtiaq Ahmed, a Swedish political scientist and author of Pakistani descent, in an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, said that “there is no fear among ordinary Muslims in India from the majority community”.
“They go about their business like any other normal citizen,” said the professor emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University.
Ahmed, however, said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) practises votebank politics. “I pointed out even to people from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), how they don’t have a single BJP Muslim MP.”
ON THE UCC
Ahmed said that he was a “strong believer in the Uniform Civil Code (UCC)”. “Muslim women should not be discriminated against. If there are common criminal laws, there is no reason why there can’t be common civil laws. I call it the common citizen code,” he said.
The UCC, in effect, means one law which would be applicable to all religious communities in matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption, maintenance, among others. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently said India needed a UCC, as the country could not run with the dual system of “separate laws for separate communities”, the Uttarakhand government said its draft with provisions for the age of girls for marriage and conditions for live-in relationships, among others, was ready and would be implemented soon. Muslim organisations reacted strongly to the announcement.
However, India’s biggest Uniform Civil Code (UCC) survey conducted exclusively by the News18 Network found that at least 67.2% of Muslim women support a common law for all Indians for personal matters such as marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance.
News18's #MegaUCCPoll reveals, 67.2% of India's Muslim women said yes when asked if they support a common law for marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance;"I'm not at all surprised by the results. You've (News18) given a voice to Indian Muslim women": Activist… pic.twitter.com/sNyKevFOta
— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 10, 2023
‘JINNAH NEVER WANTED SECULAR MUSLIM DEMOCRACY’
Elaborating on Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s ideals, Ahmed said, “He never wanted a secular Muslim democracy. His idea was always to make Pakistan an ethno-religious state. I have analysed looking at his various books.”
“His only fear was of Muslims who stayed behind in India rushing to Pakistan and overwhelming the state,” he added.
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