Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday he wanted to press ahead with a national common civil code of law, a proposal bitterly opposed by Muslim activists as an attack on their faith.
India’s 1.4 billion people are subject to a common criminal law but rules vary on personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.
The proposed civil code would standardise laws across all religious communities but has been bitterly opposed by Muslim activists and liberals as an attack on the largest religious minority.
However, the prime minister said during an annual Independence Day address that the different laws divided the nation.
“Those laws that divide the country on the basis of religion, that become reason for inequality, should have no place in a modern society,” Modi said.
“That is why I say: the times demand that there is a secular civil code in the country.”
Modi won a third successive term in office in June but was forced into a coalition government after a shock election setback for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) left him without an outright majority for the first time in a decade.
The BJP’s Hindu first rhetoric has left India’s Muslim population of more than 220 million increasingly anxious about their future.
“The civil code, under which we live, is actually a kind of communal civil code, a code of discrimination,” Modi said, calling for debate on the issue.
“Everyone should come out with their opinion”, he told the thousands of students, soldiers and foreign dignitaries in the audience.
Modi spoke at New Delhi’s imposing 17th-century Red Fort to mark India’s independence from Britain, an annual tradition since India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, took office.
He also called for swift punishment after the horrific rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in a hospital in Kolkata last week, a killing that has triggered widespread demonstrations and a strike by fellow doctors.
“Crimes against women should be quickly investigated; monstrous behaviour against women should be severely and quickly punished,” he said.
Modi also called for calm in neighbouring Bangladesh after the ouster of his former ally Sheikh Hasina, who quit as prime minister last week following a student-led uprising and fled to India.
“Whatever happens in Bangladesh is a matter of concern. I hope that the situation there will become normal soon,” he said, raising concerns over attacks on Bangladesh’s Hindu minority in the immediate aftermath of Hasina’s departure.
“India always wants that our neighbouring countries tread the path of peace and tranquillity… we will remain well-wishers of the development journey of Bangladesh.”