A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s strong pitch for a “secular civil code”, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday alleged that the BJP has been neither secular nor civil in the last 10 years.
A “secular and civil country is the need of the hour”, the Independent Rajya Sabha MP and former Union minister said in a post on X.
Modi said in his Independence Day address that a “secular civil code” is the need of the hour for the country. He also described the existing set of laws as a “communal civil code” and termed them discriminatory.
Referring to Modi’s remarks, Sibal posted on X, “PM: ‘Need of the hour…A Secular Civil Code in this country… Spent 75 years under the Communal Civil Code’. My take: Need of the hour: A secular and civil country. In the last 10 years, the BJP has neither been ‘secular’ nor ‘civil’.”
Addressing a press conference later in the morning, Sibal said the prime minister in his speech from the Red Fort spoke of a Uniform Civil Code but did not specify which laws he was talking about.
India’s Constitution says it is a secular country and the BJP must embrace secularism not just in its speeches but also in actions, he noted.