IT News
Mumbai, 17 December
While chief ministers of West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab have already expressed their opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that his Government will take a call only after Supreme Court delivers its verdict on the issue in response to a couple of petitions filed.
Speaking to media in Nagpur where the winter session of the Maharashtra legislature is underway, Thackeray said that the constitutional validity of the CAB is yet to be verified and the clear picture will emerge only after SC directions. In a related development, some of the Congress MLAs from Maharashtra held a meeting with party Chief Sonia Gandhi last week and sought her intervention in the matter.
PWD Minister Nitin Raut (Congress) told media that they have urged Sonia Gandhi to oppose implementation of CAB in Maharashtra. Raut said that they have also requested Thackeray not to implement the CAB and he has given positive indications. Thackeray heads a coalition Government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress in Maharashtra.
Initially during the debate in Lok Sabha, the Shiv Sena had supported the bill. Later in Rajya Sabha, three Shiv Sena members opposed the bill and walked out. Now the bill has already been passed by both the houses of the Parliament and the President has given consent to it converting into the act.
Thackeray said that there was no need to pass the CAB in a post haste when the country was already surrounded by burning issues like growing unemployment, farmers’ woes and crime against women. The NDA Government passed the bill just to divert the attention of people from basic issues confronting the country. Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not reply to queries raised by our members in the Parliament. We had suggested that voting rights of illegal migrants be withheld.
Besides, the CAB was against idea propounded by Savarkar, that there should be one nation from “Sindhu to Sindhu Sagar”(one country surrounding Sindhu(Indus) river originating in Tibet, running a course through Ladakh and then flowing along the entire length of Pakistan).
“Is BJP is in a position to implement such plan ? Thackeray asked and added that the BJP wants to “import” Hindus from already divided countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan as if India is under-populated. If Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Christians and Buddhists are persecuted in these countries, then BJP led Government of India should have courage to tell these countries to ensure protection to religious minorities.
Referring to a stand off between BJP and Congress over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s jibe at a poll rally in Jharkhand, that instead of PM’s slogan “make in India’, now the country should be labelled as “Rape in India”, going by cases of crime against women, and his refusal to apologize saying “My name is Rahul Gandhi, not Rahul Savarkar”, Thackeray said that the Shiv Sena will not compromise its respect for Barrister V D Savarkar.
In the meanwhile, describing the CAB as a “divisive and destabilizing” move, some of the civil society groups have announced plans for a nationwide strike and protest against the bill on December 19. They have vowed to continue the struggle till the government abandoned the move. Similarly the Samajwadi Party has organised a huge march at Marine Drive in South Mumbai on 19 December.
By now several organisations including IIT Bombay Students’ Union, TISS Students Union, NCP youth wing and SFI, have already staged protests against CAB and the agitations are on practically everyday.
