Kannur (Kerala) | A day after the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) clearly rejected the invitation of the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala to take part in its seminar on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), its senior leader and LDF convener E P Jayarajan held out hope that the key Congress ally would cooperate with the Left party on the issue.
Jayarajan justified the CPI(M) not inviting Congress to its seminar to be held at Kozhikode on July 15, alleging that the opposition party had a "soft Hindutva" stand.
"The Congress was not invited because of its soft Hindutva approach and lack of a strong stand against the communal agenda of the RSS and Sangh Parivar," the LDF convener claimed.
"If Congress is ready to give up its soft Hindutva stand and strongly oppose the RSS and Sangh Parivar's communal agenda, the CPI(M) might have no problem inviting them (Congress)," he contended.
Speaking to reporters here, the LDF convener said many of the followers of IUML believe the party should have a proper stand of its own instead of following the Congress lead. "I am hoping they will cooperate with our efforts (on the UCC issue)," he added.
He said that neither the CPI(M) nor its mouthpiece and not even its former leader and the first Kerala CM, E M S Namboodiripad, ever spoke in favour of implementing the UCC.
"Anyone who knows EMS would know that he did not have such a stand. He never took a stand (on the UCC) which was different from that of the party. The allegations to the contrary are being spread by those who do not know EMS," Jayarajan said.
He also said Namboodiripad had in fact warned against mixing religion and politics.
On the issue of what Namboodiripad said regarding the UCC, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan in a press conference held in Thiruvananthapuram said he can show Assembly records and newspaper reports of the CPI(M) mouthpiece where the first Kerala CM was calling for implementation of the Uniform Civil Code.
The LDF convener further said the Left party was always against the UCC and being the strongest party in the southern state was duty-bound to take up the issue of UCC and organise a united front to counter the same.
"That is why we invited everyone to our state-level seminar to be held at
Kozhikode on July 15 on the issue of UCC," he said.
The IUML had on Sunday rejected the CPI(M)'s overtures to take part in its seminars on the hotly debated UCC issue and claimed that the Left party was trying to create "conflict" and "division" by not inviting the Congress.
Throwing its weight behind the Congress, the League said without the grand old party's leadership and support, it would not be possible for anyone to fight against the UCC at the national level as it was an issue concerning everyone in India and not just the Muslims.
Jayarajan also refuted the Congress claims that the Left government has not yet withdrawn even one case lodged against those who participated in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
He said that in all the cases where requests were received to withdraw the case, the same was done.
"Where no such request was made and the case is pending in the court, we cannot withdraw the same on our own," he claimed.
The Congress has been warning against joining the CPI(M) seminar, saying that the participants might share the same fate -- that of facing criminal cases -- as those who joined the Left party to protest against the CAA.
A strong political debate has been kicked off in the state over the UCC after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last week, made a strong push for implementing the UCC by asking how the country can function with dual laws that govern personal matters.
He had advocated for the UCC while addressing BJP workers in Bhopal in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
