CPI(M) cannot mislead Muslims for votes: BJP leader Abdullakutty in wake of seminar against UCC

In an apparent defence of the UCC, Abdullakutty, the National Vice President of the BJP, said that Muslim personal law in the country is against the Holy Quran and the teachings of the Prophet.

Two days after the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala conducted a seminar against the Centre’s move to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), senior BJP leader A P Abdullakutty on Monday said the Left party can no longer mislead Muslims in the state for their votes.

In an apparent defence of the UCC, Abdullakutty, the National Vice President of the BJP, said that Muslim personal law in the country is against the Holy Quran and the teachings of the Prophet. He said that Sharia law in most Muslim nations across the world is in contrast to the Muslim personal law enacted by the British in India.

"If you examine Sharia law in other nations, you will find that the Sharia law in India is against the Holy Quran and the teachings of the Prophet,” Abdullakutty said. One example he cited was that adoption was allowed under Sharia in other nations, but not in India. "We are misleading Muslims here,” he claimed. He said that both the Congress-led UDF opposition and the CPI(M) are trying to mislead Muslims for their votes by opposing the UCC.

"This tactic of theirs will not work and they will not be able to sway the minds of the Muslim voters any longer,” he said. Abdullakutty, also the chairman of the Haj Committee of India, alleged that CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan believes that Muslims are conservative and superstitious and they can be misled for votes. "No, they (Muslims) are not. They are progressive and well-educated. So M V Govindan will have to keep his desire to mislead the Muslims for votes in his heart,” the BJP leader said.

His statement comes in the wake of the CPI(M) seminar against the UCC held on July 15 when the Left party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is 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 representatives of the Muslim and Christian religious communities.

Yechury also said laws that are discriminatory have to be corrected in consultation with the entire community and not by imposing UCC from the top. Prior to that, many prominent Islamic organisations in Kerala had said that the UCC is not just a Muslim issue. 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.