Kozhikode: A news media reported that there are no women from the Muslim community to speak at the CPI(M)’s seminar against Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to be held in Kozhikode on Saturday. The seminar will be inaugurated by CPI(M) General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury.
The report said that out of the twenty-eight speakers at the seminar not one of them is a Muslim woman. The absence of Muslim women from the seminar is significant considering the fact that one of the merits of implementing UCC is to give Muslim women more rights and freedom.
However, as CPI(M) is against implementing the pro-woman UCC, it is only natural that they have excluded the direct beneficiaries of UCC from speaking at the seminar.
The report said that the CPI(M) had approached a few women from the Muslim community to take part in the seminar. However, their views on the issue of UCC did not go down well with the communist party’s agenda and thus they were not invited in the end.
According to the report, some observers put the blame of exclusion of Muslim women from speaking at the seminar on Samastha, an organization of Sunni Muslims in Kerala. It is believed that Samastha, which is an organization holding strong Islamic conservative values, will not entertain the idea of a Muslim woman on stage where other men are present.
The Samastha also has prominent Muslim League leaders at its members, said the report. Though, the Muslim League is not attending the seminar, the party has no issue with Samastha taking part in the event.
Though there are no Muslim women to speak at the seminar, the report said that the seminar do have women speakers like Kozhikode Mayor, Dr Beena Philip and Kerala Women’s Commission Chairperson, P Sathidevi.
The CPI(M)’s seminar against the UCC has been under trouble for quite some time now. The communist party had invited the Indian Union Muslim League, (IUML), a party allied with the Congress, to the seminar. After an initial confusion, the Muslim League rebuffed the CPI(M)’s invitation and blamed the communist party of trying to take advantage of the Muslim community in the name of UCC.
While reeling under this humiliation, the CPI(M) also got rebuffed by its political ally, Communist Party of India (CPI). The CPI was miffed by CPI(M)’s decision to invite Muslim League to the seminar.
The CPI(M) has been trying to woo the Muslim community and eyeing the IUML for quite some time. The party calculates that the entry of IUML into the Left Democratic Front can help them come to power in Kerala for the third consecutive term.
The IUML has been a traditional ally of the Congress and is a powerful partner of the United Democratic Front. Currently, the IUML has fifteen MLAs in the Kerala Assembly.
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