Kochi: A day after a Sunny leader accused CPM of supporting the inter-religious marriages of Muslim women, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that no one can prevent a union between a man and woman if they had taken a decision to get married.

"There has always been opposition to such (inter-caste and inter-religious) marriages, but that has not stopped such unions," Pinarayi said.

On Wednesday, Sunni Yuvajana Sangham State Secretary Nazar Faizi Koodathayi alleged that the CPM, its youth win DYFI and the students union SFI were promoting 'mixed-marriages' (inter-religious weddings) in an attempt to destroy young Muslim women's Islamic identity. He was speaking at the Sunni Mahallu Federation (SMF), Kozhikode district leadership meeting at Koyilandy.

He also claimed the CPM was actively supporting the abduction of Muslim women to marry them off to non-Muslim men.

Vijayan said that neither the SFI nor the DYFI were working as 'inter-caste marriage bureaus'. "Such changes (marrying out of own caste or religion) represent the changing times and no organisation or the government is doing anything to bring about these changes," he said.

"If a young man and woman like each other and decide to get married, no one in the world can prevent that. If someone thinks they can prevent it, they need to realise it is utile," he added.
(With PTI inputs)