The Shiv Sena’s new allies in the State — the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — on Wednesday said the saffron party’s boycott of the vote on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, in Rajya Sabha was a welcome move as it showed that the party opposed the Bill.
The Sena had voted in favour of the Bill in Lok Sabha, after which the Congress had expressed its displeasure at the party for not adhering to the common minimum programme of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Sena’s objections
Following this, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had said on Tuesday if the queries raised by the Sena about the Bill were not answered, the party would oppose it.
“My party and I felt that when answers are not given properly, it is not right to support or oppose the Bill. We didn’t say refugees shouldn’t be granted citizenship. But we said if it’s a conspiracy for vote bank politics and allegations are being levelled against you, they should not be granted voting rights for 25 years,” Sena Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut told reporters in Delhi. “Secondly, if you look at the population and resources of India, how many people can you take in? They also did not clear the stand on Tamil Hindus from Sri Lanka,” he said.
Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram called it a welcome step. “The Sena not voting for the Bill after voting for it in Lok Sabha is a welcome development.”
The NCP, too, said the Sena boycotting the vote in the Rajya Sabha showed it had distanced itself from the BJP. “The boycott clearly means that the Sena opposed the Bill. We welcome the stand,” Mumbai NCP chief Nawab Malik said.
Two NCP MPs absent
Meanwhile, two NCP MPs, Vandana Chavan and Majid Memon, were absent on Wednesday during the vote. When asked, senior party leader and Rajya Sabha member Praful Patel said one of them had a wedding in the family and the other was unwell.
The Maharashtra Congress reacted cautiously to the Sena’s actions, with party spokesperson Sachin Sawant only saying, “The boycott means it is not supporting the BJP.”
The BJP, on the other hand, taunted the Sena that it had opposed a Bill giving citizenship to Hindus in India. “Balasaheb Thackeray willing lost his voting right for Hindutva, but today’s power-hungry Sena takes a position to deny voting right Hindus coming from outside. They are under pressure from the Congress,” tweeted BJP MLA Ashish Shelar.
