Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday accused the Congress of resorting to escapist tactics by sidestepping from taking a transparent and unambiguous position on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress had yet to shed its ambivalence on the Centre’s move to trample on the personal laws governing Muslim marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance and charity.
Instead, tje Congress chose to blame the CPI(M) for placing itself in the vanguard of the broad-based movement to shield minority rights and cultural and social diversity.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress lacked a political line at the national level, unlike the CPI(M).
He said a Congress leader in Himachal Pradesh, Vikram Aditya Singh, welcomed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) move on UCC.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress’s opposition to BJP was merely electoral, determined by political expediency and with an unwavering eye on the hustings. It was reluctant to take an ideological position against the Sangh Parivar’s Hindu majoritarian nationalist agenda.
By remaining silent, the Chief Minister said, the Congress indirectly endorsed a Central Ordinance to put the Lieutenant Governor back at the helm of administrative affairs in Delhi.
He said the Centre passed the Ordinance immediately after the Supreme Court allowed the Delhi government to make laws and administer the civil services there.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress struck the same duplicitous tack on the UCC issue.
