Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan seems to have pushed the ruling and Opposition fronts into a political quandary by appearing to endorse the Centre’s bid to draft a Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
In an article in the organisation’s mouthpiece Yoga Nadam, Mr. Natesan listed the debatable socio-legal advantages of a homogenous civil law. He asserted that a UCC was imperative for a progressive society. Mr. Natesan railed against “faith-based” personal laws that govern marriage, divorce, adoption, inheritance and succession.
He said a common body of laws for society would end alleged discrimination against women in the Muslim community. He quoted the Mary Roy case, in which the Supreme Court gave equal property rights to Syrian Christian women.
Mr. Natesan also observed that the Rajiv Gandhi government had passed a law to overturn a Supreme Court judgment ordering maintenance for a divorced woman hailing from the Muslim community in the momentous Shah Bano case.
On social reformers
However, Mr. Natesan tempered his article with the cautious proviso that the Centre should take minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, on board before enacting a UCC. Mr. Natesan also attempted to portray the UCC as a natural corollary of social reformist movements spearheaded by renaissance leaders, particularly Sree Narayana Guru.
He said the social reformers had fought against social evils visited on society in the name of caste, community, gender and religion. Mr. Natesan said Article 44 of the Constitution, which strongly argues for a UCC, resulted from the epoch-making resistance of renaissance leaders to invidious social practices imposed by unfounded beliefs.
Mr. Natesan’s political tack on UCC appeared to dispute the ruling front and the Opposition’s vehement resistance to UCC. It seemed to endorse, with a few riders, the BJP’s line on the emotive subject.
The CPI(M), Congress, and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) condemned the BJP’s parliamentary election-era pitch for a UCC as a perfidious move to divide the electorate into religious lines.
‘Promising signs’
Nevertheless, the opposing fronts in Kerala are striving to read the political tea leaves in Mr. Natesan’s statement. The BJP reportedly sees some promising signs.
That Mr. Natesan claims the leadership of the numerically strong Ezhava community seems not lost on the opposing fronts. The backward class community’s political loyalties have often been divided, despite SNDP Yogam leadership’s positions, periodically with a marked preference for the Left.
