The Kerala Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution against the Union government’s proposed Uniform Civil Code (UCC), becoming the first Legislature in the country to do so. The resolution, which was introduced by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly on Tuesday, August 8, stated that the Union government's “unilateral and hasty move” to implement UCC in the country will void the Indian Constitution’s “secular character.” 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.
Stating that the proposed legislation has become a cause for concern among various sections of the population including the Kerala Legislative Assembly, the resolution alleged that the Union government was moving forward with a unilateral decision without seeking consensus or engaging in an ideological debate. “A single civil code is a divisive move that threatens the unity of the people and is detrimental to the nation's cohesion,” the resolution said. It also urged the Union government to refrain from taking such steps on issues that affect the country’s entire populace.
CM Pinarayi had recently alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was raking up the topic of the UCC as part of its “electoral agenda”. He stated that the BJP-led Union government’s move to unilaterally proceed with the proposal was part of its attempts to wipe out the country’s cultural diversity and impose the communal rhetoric of “one nation, one culture” in India.
Incidentally, the Kerala Assembly was also the first Legislature in India to unanimously pass a resolution against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December 2019. The state later passed two more unanimous resolutions in 2021, urging the Union government to repeal the three contentious farm laws that led to a countrywide farmers' protest, and seeking the recall of Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Patel. Last year, the Assembly moved another unanimous resolution demanding that human settlements be excluded from the purview of eco-sensitive zones of protected forest tracts.