Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday termed Uniform Civil Code a “good step”. He stated that his government was examining the matter closely and was open to implementing it.
Mr. Thakur was speaking at the inaugural function of a media centre set up at Himachal Bhawan in New Delhi. “We don’t want to rush into anything, it is a good step, and we will be looking at all aspects of the issue and are open to implementing a Uniform Civil Code,” he said.
Himachal Pradesh will be going to Assembly polls later this year and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), after its success in Punjab in March, is eyeing the State too. At this, Mr. Thakur was emphatic that the State was such that no third party could be in the fray. "Himachal Pradesh may be a small State in size but people carry values, emotions and sentiments with them. It is very difficult for them to accept any outsiders."
Mr. Thakur said that as a new entrant in Himachal politics, the AAP did not have a presence at the grassroots level and was importing people from other States. "It is known that the Aam Aadmi Party has sent its party cadre to certain areas in the Himachal to assess the ground situation, including that in Una. They have started working in the State only recently and they don't have any ground presence of gram leaders. They are bringing people from other States and I am sure people of Himachal will vote intelligently," he observed.
Explaining why he felt the AAP could not repeat its success in Punjab in his State, he said "Punjab was different. But when people from the plains come to Himachal, they fail to catch their breath and often end up breathless." He expressed the hope that the BJP would be able to break the pattern of alternation in Himachal Pradesh and come back to power again.
