Congress ally and a member of opposition UDF in Kerala, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was pushing for implementing a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the country only as an election agenda ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year as he has nothing to show for his nine-year governance.
After a meeting held here during the day, senior IUML members — which included the party’s state chief Sayyid Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal, its national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty and MP E T Muhammed Basheer — said they have decided to oppose the UCC.
The IUML leaders said that UCC was “not a Muslim issue”, but Modi was trying to project it as one. They said that it was a last-ditch “trump card” being used by Modi with the 2024 general elections in mind as he has nothing to show for the nine-year long rule by his government.
“It is an election-related agenda of the Prime Minister as he has nothing to show for this nine-year long governance. He is trying to make an issue out of a non-issue and trying to fool the people. It will be strongly opposed by the party,” Kunhalikutty told reporters.
Basheer said that the IUML has always opposed the UCC and will continue to do so as it cannot be implemented effectively in the Indian scenario.
He said that in a country like India, which is full of diversity, where different religions have their own customs, practices and beliefs, UCC can never be implemented here. Basheer claimed that Modi was raking up this issue now as he was “scared” since “his track record in the last term and this one has not been very good”.
“From the demonetisation, the various financial policies of his government and the problems in the health sector, his performance has been zero. So he is scared.
“He is also scared by the increasing strength of the opposition parties in the country and even more worried since the BJP’s loss in the Karnataka elections. That is why he is pulling out the UCC issue as a trump card in the hope it would help him win the elections next year. It will not succeed,” the IUML MP said. He also tweeted that UCC was being used by the Centre as a political strategy post Karnataka election. “Centre’s use of UCC as a political strategy post-Karnataka election is concerning. It’s blatantly clear that Modi is resorting to communal tactics to tackle his party’s predicament, unlikely to succeed. Our vigilant opposition and citizens will join forces to oppose it.#Iuml,” he tweeted.
Basheer also said that Modi was focused on the next general elections, instead of expressing a few words of concern regarding the violence in Manipur. The IUML MP further said that the party’ national executive will hold a meeting in Bhopal at the end of this month on this issue.
The reaction from IUML comes in the wake of Modi, on Tuesday, making a strong push for implementing the UCC by asking how the country can function with dual laws that govern personal matters. Addressing BJP workers in Bhopal in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, he had also accused the Opposition of using the UCC issue to “mislead and provoke” the Muslim community. The prime minister further said that those supporting ‘triple talaq’ were doing a grave injustice to Muslim daughters and that Pasmanda Muslims, who are backward, are not even treated as equals because of vote bank politics. “You tell me, in a home, how can there be one law for one member and another law for another member?” Modi had asked during his interaction with BJP workers.
He had also said that even the Supreme Court has advocated for a UCC, which will override personal laws of different religions. The UCC has been one of the three key poll planks of the BJP for a long time with the other being the abrogation of Article 370 that had given special status to Jammu and Kashmir and construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. UCC refers to a common set of laws that are applicable to all the citizens of India that is not based on religion and dealing with marriage, divorce, inheritance and adoption among other personal matters.
The Law Commission had on June 14 initiated a fresh consultation process on UCC by seeking views from stakeholders, including public and recognised religious organisations, on the politically sensitive issue.
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