NEW DELHI: BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday said a uniform civil code will strengthen the fundamental constitutional spirit and inclusive thinking of India.
Naqvi said those who are involved in "communal lynching" of this constitutional reform, which, he claimed, is aimed at protecting religious freedom and improving the administrative system, are neither well-wishers of the country nor of any religion.
"It is also our constitutional duty to protect the power of the Constitution from malicious conspiracies," he said at Gargi College here.
Naqvi was addressing a youth empowerment programme on Constitutional Values and Fundamental Duties, organised by Lok Sabha Secretariat's Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (ICPS).
The former minority affairs minister said secularism in India is the result of the majority community's commitment to inclusivity, co-existence, and tolerance.
"After the horrors of Partition, while the Hindu majority community of India chose the path of secularism, on the other hand, the Muslim majority of Pakistan hoisted the flag of an Islamic nation. The inclusive and all-encompassing thinking of unity in diversity of the Indian Constitution is the result of the values, resolve, and culture of the majority community," he said.
Naqvi said the strength of constitutional rights and duties has ensured that in India, power is determined through "ballot" and not "bullet."
India has become a "global hero" of constitutional democracy by countering the "feudal lynching" of the Constitution and democracy, he added.
He said that the Constitution has woven India into a single thread of unity even as the country has diverse cultures, traditions, religious beliefs and lifestyles.
Naqvi said the fundamental rights and duties have transformed India into a global brand amid the ongoing "international turbulence and domestic disruptions" and forced pseudo-secularism to disappear.
"Politics of constitutional performance has replaced politics of communal polarisation. Inclusive empowerment is the priority of our country and not communal polarisation," he said.