समान नागरिक संहिता लाना — संविधान का अनुच्छेद 44 समान नागरिक संहिता को राज्य के नीति निदेशक तत्वों में गिनता है। भाजपा मानती है कि जब तक भारत समान नागरिक संहिता नहीं अपनाता तब तक लैंगिक समानता नहीं आ सकती, जो सभी महिलाओं के अधिकारों की रक्षा करे, और भाजपा समान नागरिक संहिता बनाने के अपने रुख़ को दोहराती है, जो श्रेष्ठ परंपराओं से लेकर उन्हें आधुनिक समय के अनुरूप बनाए।

Put the 2019 and 2024 texts side by side and the only substantive difference is a word. 2019: "there cannot be gender equality till such time India adopts a Uniform Civil Code… the BJP reiterates its stand to draft a Uniform Civil Code, drawing upon the best traditions and harmonizing them with the modern times." 2024: the same sentence with "Bharat" in place of "India" and "draw" in place of "draft".

What the promise commits to is drafting, not enacting. The heading above it in 2024 — "Bringing Uniform Civil Code" — is stronger than the sentence beneath it, and the sentence is what we grade.

Eight months into the term, the Ministry of Law and Justice set out the position in the Lok Sabha on 20 December 2024. On direction to states: "No such guidelines were issued by the Government of India to State Governments for implementing the uniform civil code." On the drafting work: the 21st Law Commission issued a consultation paper but "no Report on the subject was submitted by them", and "The term of the 22nd LCI has ended without submitting any Report on the subject."

That is the most recent authoritative statement we hold. No national draft has been published since, and no Bill has been introduced.

One thing has changed on the ground, and it is worth being precise about it. Personal law sits in Entry 5 of the Concurrent List, so a state can legislate for itself. Uttarakhand has enacted its own uniform civil code. That is a real UCC in force in part of India — and it was drafted by a state government, under a state committee, not by the Centre. It does not discharge a commitment the national party made about its own drafting work, though it does show the promise moving from rhetoric into law somewhere.

The term runs to 2029 and this entry is therefore recorded as too early, not failed. What can be said now is that the commitment has appeared in three consecutive manifestos, that two law commissions were asked and neither reported, and that the Centre has published nothing. Our verdict is lacks context.