After former  Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raised a red flag questioning the timing and subject matter of the seminar on the issue of the Uniform Civil Code the Indian army Saturday decided to cancel the same citing imposition of the ‘model code of conduct’.

Interestingly, the same model code of conduct was already in place when the organisers extended an invitation to the media persons to attend the seminar on the subject “Navigating legal frontiers: Understanding Indian Penal Code 2023 and the quest for Uniform Civil Code”.

The seminar was scheduled for March 26 at the Kashmir University Auditorium. Srinagar-based PRO Defence sent the invite for the seminar to the media persons on behalf of General Officer Commanding HQ 31 Sub Area, Major General PBS Lamba on Friday.

“The Legal Awareness Seminar on March 26 by Kashmir Jurist in Kashmir University has been cancelled due to implementation of the Model Code of Conduct,” Srinagar-based Defence Spokesman Lt Col Manoj Sahu said.

Before the decision was taken to cancel the seminar, several social media platforms also witnessed intense debate over whether the Indian Army should have organised a seminar on the topic at this juncture.

First of all Vice President of the National Conference (NC) Omar Abdullah questioned the Army’s involvement in a “divisive” issue like the Uniform Civil Code in a “sensitive” place like Kashmir.

“Is it appropriate for the Indian Army to get involved in the divisive issue of the uniform civil code & that too in a sensitive area like Kashmir? There is a reason the Indian Army has remained apolitical & areligious. This ill-advised UCC seminar is a threat to both these basic tenets,” Abdullah said in a post on X.

He said going ahead with the seminar risks opening up the Army to charges of getting involved in the “murky world” of politics coupled with “interfering” in religious matters.

His party colleague and NC’s chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to “assess the appropriateness” of the Army discussing an issue that figures prominently in the BJP’s manifesto while the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in effect.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also criticised the Army for conducting the seminar.

“What we are seeing is the continuation of the trend of ‘Naya Kashmir’ and Akhir Kab Tak campaigns in which the Army as an institution was seen as playing a partisan role and directly interfering in the political affairs of J-K,” PDP spokesperson Najmus Saqib said.

“Post backlash, we had seen some systemic changes, but unfortunately the seminar by the India Army as an institution depicts how far the lines between politics and security apparatus have blurred in J-K,” he added.

Saqib said this is a “dangerous trend” and is a “manifestation of larger systemic erosion of the Constitution”.