The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and several Muslim organisations in Kerala on Tuesday called upon like-minded groups to oppose the proposed uniform civil code across the nation and cautioned against the tendency to bracket it as a Muslim issue.
A meeting held in Kozhikode in north Kerala and attended by leaders of several organisations resolved to hold a series of seminars as part of an initiative to generate awareness on the issue and how to deal with it without making it a Muslim-centric problem.
Leaders of the IUML (the principal ally of the Congress in Kerala), Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulama, Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen, Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim Education Society, Wisdom, Dakshina Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulama, Muslim Service Society and the Tablighi Jamaat participated in the meeting and formed a core committee to organise the seminars, beginning with one in Kozhikode ahead of the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament where the UCC bill is likely to be tabled.
Kerala state president of the IUML, Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, who is a member of the spiritual leadership of the party, told a media conference that the “model seminar to be held in Kozhikode will set the tone for our joint programmes opposing the UCC”.
“There is a campaign to convert this into a Muslim issue. But this meeting came to the conclusion that it will be wrong to portray it as a Muslim issue since it is something that will affect the country’s social system as a whole,” Thangal said.
He noted how the proposed UCC would affect hundreds of tribal communities, including those in the Northeast, who have their own socio-cultural identities.
The meeting, he said, resolved not to take matters to the streets. “This is not at all an issue that calls for street protests, but something that should be fought legally and politically,” Thangal said, cautioning everyone to desist from creating law-and-order problems over the UCC.
Thangal said: “There should never be communal polarisation based on this issue and everyone should react with great caution and responsibility.”
“No one should participate in any seminar or other events that describe it as a Muslim-only issue,” he added.
IUML national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty cautioned Muslim leaders “against falling into the trap” of the ongoing campaign that portrays the UCC as something that concerns only Muslims.
The CPM has invited the IUML and the Samastha Kerala Jam-Iyyathul Ulama to its seminar against the UCC scheduled to be held in Kozhikode on July 15. While the invitation had rankled the Congress, Kunhalikutty told the media conference that the matter was not discussed at the meeting.
“This meeting didn’t even discuss such an issue since it is not focused on Kerala politics,” he said, parrying repeated questions on whether the IUML would participate in the CPM seminar.
Kunhalikutty alleged that the UCC was being projected as a communal issue with ulterior motives. “This is part of a larger agenda to make a communal issue out of it and then convert it into an election issue. But our initiatives (against the UCC) are all about safeguarding the principles of the Constitution that stresses on unity in diversity. Since it is beyond us to organise seminars everywhere, we urge organisers of events across the country to make it clear it is not a Muslim-only issue,” he added.
Congress functionaries in Kerala are scheduled to meet on Wednesday to chalk out the party’s programme to oppose the UCC, mainly as a reassurance to its ally, the IUML.
AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal has spoken to leaders of the IUML and other Sunni organisations about its support to the cause in an attempt to dissuade them from accepting the CPM invitation.
