SHILLONG, MAY 27: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said he would reserve his position on the Uniform Civil Code until he sees the actual draft, though he admitted to being “slightly more at comfort” after noting that UCC laws in Uttarakhand and Assam have kept tribal laws out of their ambit.
“I have been very clear on UCC on one perspective and that perspective has been that I cannot comment on a UCC if I don’t see the format of the UCC,” Sangma said.
He explained that the term alone was too vague to respond to. “UCC is a Universal Civil Code. What does that UCC mean and what are the codes that will be universal, that is what I need to see,” he said.
“At that point in time only word that is there and therefore it could be left to anybody’s imagination to say that the UCC could be like this.”
The Chief Minister said his initial opposition stemmed from fears about tribal customs. “In the beginning when we had looked at the UCC, it was a thought process. When people asked me about UCC at that point, I said no we cannot have UCC because we are tribals and our tribal laws are different,” he said.
However, he noted a shift after examining recent state laws. “Now, we have seen the context of it and how the UCC is coming out in different states, I am slightly more at comfort because if you look at the UCC in Uttarakhand or whether it is in Assam, they are not touching tribal laws,” Sangma said.
“So suddenly now the UCC is coming from Assam and Uttarakhand and they clearly mentioned out here that tribal laws are exempted so obviously it is a different thing then,” he added. Sangma said Meghalaya would still need to study any proposal in detail. “When that kind of situation comes in, of course we have to study things carefully, we like to see the details of it though it is from a different state and it is their law,” he said.
“From a pure political question that you ask me, that definitely we will read it and examine it.” He said the biggest worry for the state was the potential impact on its matrilineal system. “We were worried that our matrilineal system that is there tomorrow will be changed and a national law will come in that will completely change the way the tribal in our state follows matrilineal system,” Sangma said.
“These are the things that bother us but once we started seeing different laws being passed, we could see at least in paper the tribal rights were protected in one way,” he said.
“But we will have to see the whole thing before we can make our full comment.”
