Adhikari pledges UCC and tougher laws in West Bengal

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said his government would pursue a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) for the state and, after its implementation, introduce stringent laws addressing what he called “love jihad” and “land jihad.” He made the pledge at a Kolkata event on October 4, while speaking at a gathering marking the birth centenary of former Vishwa Hindu Parishad president Ashok Singhal. The proposals have not been enacted, and reports of his remarks differ on which part of the plan he linked to a six-month timeline. Adhikari said West Bengal would follow Uttarakhand and Gujarat in implementing a UCC. In remarks reported from the event, he promised the code within six months and said tougher laws would follow it. Other accounts attach the six-month pledge to the subsequent laws, leaving the timing of each step unclear. He also referred to religious conversion in describing the proposed laws, but no bill text or legal definitions for those measures were provided. The state government has established a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai to examine a draft UCC.