Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday challenged the BJP to bring a Uniform Civil Code bill before Parliament instead of rolling it out through states, saying a law cannot be called ‘uniform’ when it applies selectively. His remarks come as the Centre pushes UCC implementation across NDA-ruled states before the 2029 Lok Sabha election, despite resistance from allies.
‘Bring the legislation to Parliament’
“If the BJP has the courage, it should introduce the legislation in Parliament, allow a full debate, and then test whether it can secure passage. Pushing it state by state is undemocratic. In a true democracy, a debate of this magnitude belongs at the Centre. Gujarat and Assam have since received presidential assent for their UCC laws. The Constitution places marriage, divorce, adoption, wills and succession in the Concurrent List, which allows both Parliament and state legislatures to make laws on those subjects. Chief Minister Abdullah also spoke about the detention and proposed deportation of people identified as illegal immigrants in Jammu and Kashmir. CM Abdullah also backed the INDIA bloc’s campaign over alleged voter-list deletions.
Because they lack the numbers, they will not do so. Abdullah’s objection is therefore political and procedural: he wants a single national proposal debated in Parliament instead of separate state laws. His comments come less than a month after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said UCC would be introduced in all 21 NDA-ruled states before the 2029 Lok Sabha election. Uttarakhand has had its code in force since January 2025. 150 alleged Bangladeshi nationals were flown from Jammu and Kashmir to West Bengal for deportation after a survey in which 500 people were detained.
“These matters cannot be settled by individual states acting in isolation,” CM Abdullah said. He said people who entered India illegally from Bangladesh were in a different legal category and could not stay without permission. CM Abdullah said decisions on such action rested with the Centre and noted that the police involved were not under his government’s control. He said opposition leaders had drawn up a programme for October and that the campaign would continue after MPs marched towards the Election Commission.
