Ahead of tabling of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha, the Shiv Sena has hit back at BJP, saying it’s wrong to do vote bank politics. "If someone is trying to do a vote bank politics under the garb of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill then it is not in the interest of the country," it said.
In an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', Shiv Sena also suggested that non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who will get Indian citizenship should not be given voting right for 25 years.
Shiv Sena also suggested that instead of accepting non Muslim refugees, the Centre should initiate stern action against excesses on minorities in India. The party in its editorial also said that it has already told Home Minister Amit Shah that all illegal immigrants including Bangladeshi should be deported.
In an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Sena also raised the timing of the bill saying, "There is no dearth of problems in India now but still we are inviting new ones such as CAB. It looks like the Centre has made an invisible partition of Hindus and Muslims over the bill". The Sena, which has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha, also pointed out that most of the states from the North East region have opposed the CAB along with Bihar where the BJP is sharing power with the JD(U), and West Bengal.
At the same time, the Sena has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a strong action against some neighbouring countries that torture Hindus like he had taken against Pakistan.
The edit said, "Like Pakistan, PM Modi should teach a strong lesson to other neighbouring countries torturing the communities like Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains".
Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP recently to form a government with rivals NCP and Congress in Maharashtra. The BJP won 105 seats in October's elections to emerge as the single-largest party. The Sena, with whom it contested the polls, won 56. Had the Sena-BJP alliance survived post-poll power-sharing talks, forming the government would have been a formality.
However, negotiations broke down over the BJP refusing to a "50:50" deal the Sena claims had been agreed with Amit Shah, forcing the Sena to approach the Congress and the NCP, which won 44 and 54 seats respectively, to form a surprise coalition.
(Inputs from Sanjay Jog and PTI)
