The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) political resolution on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) seeks to undercut the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ‘s “early bird” move to make inroads into the traditional Muslim bastions of the United Democratic Front (UDF) by propagandising that the Congress is ambivalent about the socially explosive issue.
The KPCC called a leadership meeting at the Indira Bhavan here on Wednesday after the CPI(M) sought across-the-aisle support from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), an Opposition alliance partner, and Muslim social organisations to resist the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bid to impose a UCC in the face of the Congress “dragging its feet” on the question of minority rights.
Simultaneously, the KPCC sought to expose the perceived dissension within the BJP over imposing the UCC.
The UCC and Manipur violence are on the ballot in Kerala in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Both fronts are competitively wooing minority votes to their fold to reject the BJP at the hustings.
The KPCC termed the CPI(M) ‘s stance on the UCC Janus faced. The CPI(M) resorted to political doublespeak by portraying the UCC as a sword of Damocles that threatened only Muslims and their personal laws that governed marriage, divorce, inheritance, adoption and charity.
The CPI(M)‘s gambit was to sow division to harness minority votes. It had often used the UCC debate as a double-edged sword for political expediency.
In 1985, the CPI(M) called for the imposition of the UCC in the wake of the landmark Shah Bano case. It attacked Shariat to harness Hindu right wing votes. The KPCC said the CPI(M) had played the UCC card in reverse, given the current political climate.
The political resolution noted that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi diluted the Supreme Court judgment deemed anti-Islamic by passing the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986. The political resolution sought to project the Congress as the sole secular bulwark against the Centre’s trespasses on minority rights, including the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
It sought to put the CPI(M) on the defence by stating that the CPI(M) was loath to withdraw the cases against hundreds of anti-CAA agitators, including women, despite an assurance given by the government in the Assembly.
The KPCC noted that the Justice B.S. Chauhan Law Commission, appointed by the BJP government in 2017, had argued against imposing a UCC. The BJP mooted a UCC without preparing or circulating a draft law. The BJP raised the UCC during its past Lok Sabha election campaigns to divide votes into religious lines with no regard for the fissures such a myopic and profit-motivated strategy created in society.
At least two BJP Chief Ministers had objected to the UCC debate. Sushil Modi, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on UCC, opposed imposing the code on tribes, given their peculiar and unique customs and cultural diversity.
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, UDF convener M.M. Hassan, senior Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, K.C. Joseph, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and K. Muraldeeharan were present.
