The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] move to cobble together a vanguard of broad-based opposition to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) by soliciting across-the-aisle support from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has seemingly spooked the Congress.
The Congress has scrambled to convene a leadership meeting on July 5 to chart a course to bolster the United Democratic Front (UDF) and reinforce its traditional sway over minority communities by aggressively championing the anti-UCC cause.
On Sunday, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan, to all intents and purposes, set the cat among the pigeons by suggesting that Muslims felt the Congress was ambivalent about the UCC.
He said a Congress Minister in Himachal Pradesh batted for the law. He claimed Rahul Gandhi was yet to speak his mind. Mr. Govindan invited the IUML to set aside politics and join a broad alliance against the UCC.
It soon appeared that the CPI(M) stole a march on the Congress on the emotive issue involving personal laws that govern Muslim marriage, divorce, adoption, succession, and charity.
It did not help the Congress that IUML general secretary P.M.A. Salam welcomed the CPI(M)’s looming anti-UCC agitation. Moreover, the Congress may get caught on the wrong foot if the IUML invites the CPI(M) to an upcoming seminar on the UCC in Ernakulam.
Soon opposing Sunni groups led by “Left inclined” Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar and “pro-IUML” Syed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal closed ranks in the face of the UCC threat, signalling a possible realignment in minority votes ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress is chary of holding hands with any CPI(M)-led anti-UCC formation. It fears such a move will blur the lines between the ruling front and the Opposition in Kerala and hand over a propaganda victory to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran ruled out any truck with the CPI(M) on the UCC issue. Both said the CPI(M) played to the BJP agenda by portraying the UCC as a problem that affected only Muslims.
They demanded the CPI(M) withdraw cases slapped against hundreds who agitated against the patently anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) before weeping crocodile tears for threatened minority rights.
