Kochi: A day after the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala organised a seminar in the state to discuss the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), the opposition Congress on Sunday alleged that the Left party was using the issue as a means for political gains and targeting the grand old party.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief and MP K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Assembly V D Satheesan both alleged that the Left party misused the seminar for implementing its political agenda.
Sudhakaran said that a Kerala minister came to the fore against the Congress to prevent discussion on the alleged similarity in the stand of the CPI(M) and the BJP on the UCC.
Satheesan said that the Kerala minister’s allegation that Congress was trying to sabotage the seminar was an indication that the Left party was making use of the UCC issue politically.
The LoP said, “They (CPIM) have only political goals and ambitions. Our allegation that the CPI(M) is only aiming for political gains has been vindicated.”
Satheesan said that the Congress did not ask anyone to attend or avoid the seminar.
“The CPI(M) is trying to make political gains by targeting the Congress. Was that the intention behind the seminar?” he asked.
Satheesan said the minister’s reaction was an insult to everyone who participated in the event.
He was referring to State Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas’ comments to the media on Sunday that the LoP and other top leaders of the Congress were acting as “sleeping agents of the BJP” in Kerala and were trying to sabotage the seminar.
Riyas also said that the seminar was a huge success, a claim contested by Sudhakaran who termed the event “a damp squib”.
The LoP said that the Congress has raised an important question as to what extent a government can interfere with personal laws and customs and it was always against the implementation of the UCC.
“We opposed it before the Parliamentary Committee and will oppose it inside and outside the Parliament. The Congress, both when in power and when it was not, has taken the stand that there was no need for the UCC,” he said while speaking to reporters here.
On Saturday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, at a national seminar organised by the Left party in Kozhikode to discuss the UCC, said that the civil code was a political tool being used by the BJP to sharpen communal polarisation.
Uniformity does not mean equality, he had stressed, at the event which saw the participation of numerous influential Muslim and Christian religious community representatives.
Yechury had also said laws that are discriminatory have to be corrected in consultation with the entire community and not by imposing UCC from the top.
A strong political debate has been kicked off in the state over the UCC after Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently made a strong push for implementing the civil code by asking how the country can function with dual laws that govern personal matters.
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