Coming down heavily on Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) for what he termed its efforts to whip up communal passion, CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said that the IUML was looking for communal polarisation in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing a news conference here, he said that in the event of a communal polarisation, RSS and Sangh Parivar forces would benefit.
‘’But the Muslim League is unconcerned about the RSS benefiting from such a communal polarisation. What they have been looking for is communal polarisation which will fetch them votes,’’ Pinarayi Vijayan said.
He said there was an ulterior motive to deny educational rights to Muslim girls behind the move to bring down their marriageable age. The League had been following the same strategy of convening meetings of communal organisations during elections with an eye on vote banks.
It was at the meeting of the Samastha Kerala Jam Iyyathul Ulama, of which IUML state president Panakkad Hyderali Shihab Thangal is the vice-president, took the decision to move the court for bringing down the marriageable age of Muslim girls. Muslim League leader M C Mayin Haji is the convener of the Muslim Personal Law Protection Council, a forum constituted at the meeting in this regard, Pinarayi said.
He asked whether the IUML believe that the Muslim youths were in favour of child marriages.
“Only those who have fallen to the state of moral decay may find pleasure in child marriages,’’ Pinarayi said. The Muslim League’s moves would only help depict the Muslim community in a wrong way, the CPM leader said. He said that when the government at the behest of Minister M K Muneer tried to bring down the marriageable age of Muslim girls, the entire society woke up to resist the move. The same kind of protest and resistance should be mobilised against the Muslim League’s present effort, Pinarayi Vijayan said.
He urged the Chief Minister and the KPCC president to express their views on the Muslim League’s stand.