The Bharatiya Janata Party's Sankalp Patra or manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections presented on Sunday morning had, among other promises, two key takeaways - bringing in a one nation, one election system and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The manifesto, titled Modi ki Guarantee, which was presented by PM Modi in the presence of BJP president JP Nadda, chairman of BJP's manifesto committee Rajnath Singh, Union Ministers Amit Shah, and Nirmala Sitharaman, said the government would focus on implementation of the UCC and address the one nation, one poll issue.
One nation, one election
It's a proposal to hold both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously, thereby saving costs, manpower resources and other expenses.
Elections involve big expenses. As soon as the Lok Sabha elections are over, the government machinery will start rolling out processes involving men, money and machinery for elections in Maharashtra and Haryana later this year.
A panel led by former President Ram Nath Kovind had examined the possiblity of changing the format of elections after consutling various parties, economists and the Election Commission of India.
However, even while backing the proposal, the panel had stressed on the need for a legally sustainable system that could realign the electoral cycle.
A new consolidated system will ensure that Indians vote for Parliamentary and Assembly elections at the same time - possibly within a year if not the same period.
Uniform Civil Code
UCC aims at equality of all citizens and will replace personal laws with a common law, irrespective of religion, caste, creed, sexual orientation and gender.
Despite criticism by political parties that the BJP government was discriminating against people on the basis of religion, the truth is that the UCC finds mention in part 4th of the constitution, which states that the state "shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India".
Those who had framed the constitution had envisioned a uniform set of laws replacing personal laws of every religion related to marriage, inheritance and divorce.
UCC is part of the Directive Principles of the State Policy, which cannot be enforced but is considered fundamental to the country's governance.
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