Uttarakhand leader of opposition Yashpal Arya on Tuesday said the Congress is not against the Uniform Civil Code bill, that was tabled in the assembly.
Arya criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for ignoring the rules of conduct of business in the House and alleged that the ruling party wanted to suppress the voice of the MLAs based on the strength of numbers.
"We are not against it (Uniform Civil Code). The House is governed by the rules of conduct of business but the BJP is continuously ignoring it and wants to suppress the voice of the MLAs based on the strength of numbers," the LoP told ANI.
"It is the right of the MLAs to express their views in the House, during Question Hour, whether they have a proposal under Rule 58 or other rules, they have the right to raise their voices on various issues of the state in the Assembly," Arya added.
Former Uttarakhand CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat alleged that the state government wants an immediate discussion on the UCC bill despite nobody having a draft copy of it.
"The state government and the Chief Minister are very eager to get it passed and the rules are not being followed. No one has the draft copy and they want an immediate discussion on it. The central government is using a sensitive state like Uttarakhand for tokenism if they want to bring UCC, it should have been brought by the central government," Rawat said.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami presented the bill in the House on Tuesday.
The bill will now be debated in the assembly before being passed.
Once it becomes an act, Uttarakhand will become the first state in the country after Independence to adopt the UCC. It has been operational in Goa since the days of Portuguese rule.
