Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is arrogant for not being apologetic about the Morbi bridge collapse that claimed 135 lives, PTI reported.

“If such a thing would have happened in a foreign country, there would have been immediate resignations,” he said in Ahmedabad. “They [BJP] have not apologised as the government here thinks they will easily win the coming elections and they need not be accountable for the incident.”

Chidambaram is in Gujarat to campaign for the Assembly polls that will take place in two phases on December 1 and December 5. The votes will be counted on December 8.

When a reporter asked the senior Congress leader if the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are being used against the Opposition, he said that the central agencies were handmaidens of the BJP. He added that Gujarat was run from Delhi and not by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

Chidambaram also said that no state can announce panels to implement the Uniform Civil Code as it can only be done by Parliament.

In Gujarat and another poll-bound state, Himachal Pradesh, the BJP government has promised to implement the Uniform Civil Code. The BJP has also announced the formation of a panel to implement the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand as well.

A Uniform Civil Code involves having a common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all Indians, instead of allowing different personal laws for persons of different faiths.

The aim of such uniformity is meant to ensure equality and justice for women in particular, who are often denied their rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance under patriarchal personal laws.

The Opposition has called this move a gimmick to divert public’s attention from matters such as inflation and unemployment.