The contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill seems to have drawn a wedge between new Maharashtra allies Congress and the Shiv Sena as the grand old party is reportedly upset with the Uddhav Thackeray-led party for supporting the contentious legislation in the Lok Sabha, which passed the bill on Monday.
Speaking to News18, Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said the Sena should have acted as per the Constitution and the Common Minimum Programme arrived at by the Maha Vikas Aghadi — which also includes NCP.
Another Congress leader, Naseem Khan, said the Sena should have taken its allies into confidence before supporting the move. “This is immoral, unconstitutional and against the common minimum programme,” he said.
The Sena, which fell out with the BJP in Maharashtra over the chief minister’s position, gave its assent to the bill — which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there — in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The party, however, did a U-turn on Tuesday when its chief Uddhav Thackeray indicated that its support was conditional in the Upper House of Parliament. This was further bolstered on Wednesday when Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the dynamics in the Rajya Sabha were different from that of the Lok Sabha and asserted that the government will have to answer their queries on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, before they can expect support from the Maharashtra-based party.
"Lok Sabha numbers are different, the situation in the Rajya Sabha is different. The government has to reply to our queries. Votebank politics is not right. You are trying to create a Hindu-Muslim divide in the country yet again, leave it," Raut said.
The Sena leader, however, did not give a direct answer on whether his party would support the bill in the Rajya Sabha. He asserted that the current stand of the Sena was not due to pressure from the Congress or any other party. "No one can exert pressure on us, what is in our hearts, is on our lips," he said.
Raut also said the Citizenship Bill raised issues not of "politics", but about "humanity". "You are talking of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, not of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The situation of the Hindus in Nepal is much worse with infiltration from China and Pakistan in the region. The Hindus cannot even acknowledge the fact that they are Hindus. So, it is not about politics, but humanity. And humanity does not have any religion," he said.
The Congress, meanwhile, has been opposed to the bill, with senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rahul Gadhi and others slamming the “discriminatory” legislation. The grand old party has reportedly been pressuring the Sena to withdraw support to the legislation.
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