2024: The Year Uttarakhand Brought UCC, Became a 'Model'

Dehradun: It would not be wrong if one were to describe 2024 as Uttarakhand's most significant in its sociopolitical history since the state was formed in 2000.

This year, the state became the first in the country to pass a law to implement the Uniform Civil Code, a topic that has generated impassioned debates, divided opinions and sparked tensions. It promises to continue to shape India's political discourse in the foreseeable future.

While the UCC remained at the front and centre of the BJP government's political and legislative agenda, it also brought a law to deter potential rioters by bringing a provision that the government would recover from them any damage caused to public property during any trouble.

What prompted the The Uttarakhand Public and Private Property Damage Recovery Act was a communal conflagration in the Muslim-dominated Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani on February 8, just a day after the UCC bill was passed by the assembly.

The riot that broke out over the demolition of an illegal madrassa and a small structure built within its premises to offer namaz claimed six lives and injured a number of people including about 100 police personnel on duty.

In June 2024, nine Indian mountaineers died when a blizzard struck their location as they were trekking in the remote Himalayas.

A disaster struck Kedarghati the next month, as heavy rain triggered a series of landslides along the Kedarnath trek route when the Chardham Yatra in the night of July 31 when the pilgrimage was at its peak.

Seventeen people were dead and 25 injured. Lakhs of pilgrims were stranded, some in the middle nowhere. The yatra was suspended and a massive rescue operation was launched. The yatra to the Himalayan temple through the trek route this year ran for 50 fewer days compared to other years.

November proved to be particularly fatal in terms of road accidents as the state witnessed 45 deaths in two incidents.

A bus jam-packed with people returning to work after Diwali fell into a deep gorge in Almora district on November 4, killing 36 of the about 60 people on board.

A week later, an after-party ride turned deadly for a group of youngsters in Dehradun when their Innova car collided with a container truck killing six of them.

Also, more than 240 pilgrims died this year due to health-related issues during the Chardham pilgrimage in Uttarakhand, with the fatality rate being the highest among devotees visiting the Himalayan temples by helicopter.

Uniform Civil Code has been on the BJP agenda nationally for many years. But the party's government in Uttarakhand became the first to take a concrete step towards implementing it just before the Lok Sabha elections in May-June.

An expert committee, formed by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, submitted a comprehensive draft in four volumes to the state government in February.

Acting on the draft, the state government presented the Uttarakhand Uniform Civil Code Bill in the assembly a few days later and it was passed on February 7.

The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Act received President Droupadi Murmu's approval on March 11, making the hill state the first State in independent India to have a UCC Act.

The state government has formed a nine-member panel, chaired by former chief secretary Shatrughna Singh, to lay down the rules for the implementation. The panel has submitted its final report, and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has said the UCC is likely to be implemented in January.

The UCC seeks to establish a uniform and equal set of rules on marriage, divorce, succession, and inheritance for all citizens in the state, except the scheduled tribes, irrespective of religion. It makes registration of all marriages and live-in relationships mandatory.

Several BJP-ruled states including Assam have already expressed desire to adopt Uttarakhand's UCC as a model.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said in Parliament every state with a BJP government would bring in the UCC the way it was done in Uttarakhand.

Introducing a UCC was a major pre-poll promise made by Dhami before the 2022 assembly polls, which the BJP won to storm to power in the state for a second consecutive term, a feat achieved by no party in the state since it was formed in 2000.

The BJP also performed well in the state in the Lok Sabha polls this year retaining for the three consecutive term all five seats, including parliamentary poll debutantes former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat (Haridwar) and the BJP's national media incharge Anil Baluni (Pauri Garhwal).

Assembly bypolls were held to three seats in the state during the year including Manglaur, Badrinath and Kedarnath. The Congress wrested Manglaur from the BSP, retained Badrinath while the BJP retained Kedarnath.

In Uttarkashi, right wing Hindu groups protested in October against a decades-old mosque, saying it was illegal. They held a "Jan Aakrosh" rally in the town and clashed with the police when the route of the rally was diverted, leaving around two dozen people injured.

The situation was brought under control by issuing prohibitory orders in the district and reinforcing deployment of police personnel around the mosque.

Uncertainty surrounds the legality of the mosque with contrary claims made by the two sides and the matter pending in the Uttarakhand High Court.

Communal tension also gripped the Nandprayag town of Chamoli district in September over a barber making obscene gestures to a minor girl. Locals protested in the market, vandalising shops belonging to people of the minority community. However, the situation was soon brought under control with the arrest of the accused from Uttar Pradesh Dhami's participation in the foundation laying ceremony of a replica of Kedarnath in Delhi sparked a controversy with priests of the temple rising in revolt. The protest pushed Dhami on the backfoot and he convinced the trust building the replica of the famous temple to drop the plan.

The state cabinet also cleared introduction of a law banning the misuse of the names of the revered Himalayan shrines of Uttarakhand including Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri for any other temples or trusts.

Opposition Congress' plans to blow up the issue politically also came a cropper with the disruption of the trek route to Kedarnath as PCC president Karan Mahara's Kedarnath Samman Bachao yatra had to be stopped two days ahead of its conclusion on the instructions of Rahul Gandhi.