Shiv Sena supporting CAB, but ‘conditions apply’

Mumbai: A day after voting in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) in Lok Sabha, the Shiv Sena made a U-turn on Tuesday as its chief, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, said that his party’s queries in the Lower House on the bill had gone unanswered. “We won’t support the bill till we get clarity,” he said.

Mr Thackeray on Tuesday said that a detailed discussion and debate on the proposed legislation was necessary. “The Modi government needs to worry about the economy, job crisis and rising cost of living, especially the onion price rise, more than the implementation of the bill,” he said.

“We need to change this notion that those who support the bill and the BJP are patriots and those who oppose it are anti-national,” he said, adding that the government should answer all the issues raised on the bill.

The Lok Sabha passed the CAB, which seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there, a little past midnight on Monday. The Sena, which voted in favour of the bill in the Lower House, had demanded that people who get Indian citizenship under the proposed bill should not be granted voting rights for 25 years.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, claimed that the Sena had changed its stance over the CAB due to pressure from the Congress, which had expressed discontent over their ally’s decision to support the bill in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP questioned the Sena’s volte-face, alleging it was due to the Con-gress’ pressure. Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Is Sena changing its stance on the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and CAB due to pressure from Congress? The Sena should stick to its old stand and not change it to save the Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) government.”

Meanwhile, the NCP on Tuesday said the Sena and itself were different parties and it is not possible always for them to hold the same view on all issues.

“We are two different parties. We reached an agreement on certain issues when it comes to governance in the state. The two allies from Bihar — the JD(U) and BJP — too have taken a different stance on some issues,” Mr Malik said.

Earlier, Congress MP Hussein Dalwai has said that his party was not happy over Sena's stand of supporting the bill in the Lok Sabha. “It was said that Shiv Sena will not vote in favour of the bill. But we don't know what happened later. They could have remained neutral during the voting,” he said.