Nithyakalyani Narayanan. V
The Kerala Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution against the Uniform Civil Code proposed by the Central government, becoming the first Legislature in the country to do so. The resolution was introduced by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly on August 8. He stated that the Central government’s “unilateral and hasty move” to implement UCC in India will void the “secular character” of the Constitution.
The Assembly’s major coalitions — the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front — had already made clear their disagreements with the UCC.
The resolution alleged that the BJP led-Central government was moving forward with a unilateral decision without seeking consensus or engaging in an ideological debate, which has been a concern for many sections of the population. The resolution emphasised that “A single civil code is a divisive move that threatens the unity of the people and is detrimental to the nation’s cohesion.” It insisted the Central government to refrain from taking such steps on issues that affect the entire nation.
The Chief Minister had recently alleged that the BJP was taking up the topic of UCC as a part of their “electoral agenda”. He stated that the Central government’s move to unilaterally proceed with the proposal was part of its attempts to completely cancel the cultural diversity of the country and impose the communal rhetoric of “one nation, one culture” in the country.
The Kerala State Assembly was also the first Legislature in India to unanimously pass a resolution against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019. Kerala later passed two more unanimous resolutions in 2021, urging the Central government to repeal the three farm laws that led to a countrywide farmers’ protest, and requesting the recall of Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Patel. In 2022, the Assembly moved another unanimous resolution demanding that human settlements be excluded from the purview of eco-sensitive zones of protected forest tracts.