Monday, March 14 2005 12:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The contentious issue of uniform civil code yesterday (Mar 13, 2005) set off a fierce debate at a seminar in Kolkata with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley pitching in strongly for it while Union Minister and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar opposing the idea.

The topic generated much heat during The Telegraph-Calcutta Club National Debate with eight well-known speakers arguing for and against the motion.

The verbal battle witnessed eloquent orators like Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Vasundhara Raje and Seshadri Chari advocating the need for a uniform civil code not only to ensure citizens rights as per the Constitution but also to enforce gender justice in its true spirit.

Mani Shankar Aiyar, leading the 'no uniform code' brigade, sought to question the sincerity of Arun Jaitley as former Union Law Minister in trying to enforce such a code during his tenure and said individual personal laws existed because individual communities and their religious beliefs existed.

"Why does the Hindu community in this country want to impose something it wants on all other minorities? One should not forget that it was a similar conviction, which resulted in massive blood letting in Gujarat," Aiyar, a self-confessed atheist, said.

Modi was the most cheered figure at the elitist Calcutta Club grounds as the lone speaker in Hindi with his contention that secularism had come to connote 'emotional blackmail of the minority' and 'Hindu-bashing' in this country.