Shillong, Jan 7: National People’s Party (NPP) national president and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday said the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is something which cannot be accepted by his party. “As a political party, we are very clear that UCC is something that cannot be accepted by NPP…,” Sangma told reporters when responding to a query related to the issue.

He, however, said the particular UCC Bill is a private member Bill and it is not a government Bill and, hence, there was no specific information that this particular Bill was brought in.

Sangma admitted that the UCC and the kind of approach that is there will very extremely and in a negative manner impact the culture and the way of life of the tribes of the Northeast, especially amongst the matrilineal society like in the state of Meghalaya.

He asserted that “there may be certain areas where the central government wants certain things to be done, certain concerns are there which we are not aware of but anything that happens should not affect the culture and the way of life of the people of Meghalaya.”

Sangma continued: “UCC would mean that how would the property be transferred to the children, so if the UCC says that it has to go to the eldest son like is done in that other parts of the country but it doesn’t go with the culture of the state where we give it to the youngest daughter in many tribes.

“Hence, these kinds of conditions are there which need to be discussed in detail and hence we don’t know what kind of Bill will ultimately come out if it comes out by the government. So we cannot say right now without seeing the actual bill that the government will come out with as this is just a private member’s bill, it is difficult to say.”

“But the whole concept of UCC is something, if it goes in toto and it was going to be a uniform, means it is going to be a strict uniform where they will change the cultural practices of the state of Meghalaya then obviously that’s something that we, as a state, as a party, cannot accept it,” he said.