Union Minister Muraleedharan urges Muslims in Kerala not to fall for anti-UCC propaganda

Thiruvananthapuram, July 1 (PTI) Union Minister V Muraleedharan on Saturday urged the Muslim community in Kerala not to fall for the propaganda by the ruling CPI (M) and others against the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

The union government’s decision over the implementation of UCC was not with an eye on the general elections scheduled to be held next year, but the Constitution is the criteria for everything, he told reporters here.

The senior BJP leader wondered whether the architects of the Constitution had written all these with an eye on the elections.

“The Muslim community should not fall for the propaganda by the CPI(M) and others against the UCC,” Muraleedharan said.

The attitude that there should be no discussion on the UCC is unacceptable, he added.

Noting that the BJP was placing the issue in the public domain, the minister asked the political opponents to welcome it without any fear.

The union minister’s statement came a day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had alleged that the “electoral agenda” of the BJP is behind raking up the issue of the Uniform Civil Code and urged the central government to withdraw from the move to impose it.

In a statement, Vijayan, who is also a senior leader of the CPI(M), said the Centre’s move can only be seen as a plan to implement the “majority communal agenda of ‘one nation, one culture’ by wiping out the cultural diversity of the country”.