All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday slammed the Shiv Sena on its debilitating stance on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, calling the party’s practices ‘Bhangra politics’. “This is ‘Bhangra politics’. They write ‘secular’, in the Common Minimum Programme in Maharashtra, but this bill is against secularism and Article 14 of the Constitution. It is the politics of opportunism,” Owaisi said, when the AIMIM chief was asked to comment on the Shiv Sena supporting the CAB in Maharashtra.
For context, the Shiv Sena backed the government on passing the CAB in the Lok Sabha on Monday, claiming that the support was given on ‘national interest’. Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant, however, had told a media house earlier in the day that the party’s support to the Bill is entirely unrelated to its politics in Maharashtra. He clarified that the points specified in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) adopted by the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra is specifically for the state, and is not to be linked with the party’s stances outside Maharashtra.
A CMP is an agreement between parties forming a coalition government. In the case of Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress came together against all odds to form a government, the CMP specifies that the government will adopt secular policies.
But the Shiv Sena’s support to the CAB, which the opposition has claimed that it targets Muslims and is at odds with the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution, has put the party in an awkward position with its new ally in Maharashtra, the Congress, which had been opposing the CAB from the get-go. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi even posted from his official handle on Twitter, stating that the CAB is an ‘attack on the Indian constitution.’
The #CAB is an attack on the Indian constitution. Anyone who supports it is attacking and attempting to destroy the foundation of our nation.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 10, 2019
Following this, the Shiv Sena has been displaying a debilitating stance, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray even stating on Tuesday that the Shiv Sena will not lend support to the Citizenship Amendment Bill at the Rajya Sabha “unless things are clear”, adding that they have suggested certain changes in the Bill that they want before supporting it in the Rajya Sabha.
“It is their (BJP’s) illusion that anyone who disagrees with the Bill is a deshdrohi (anti-national). We have suggested changes in the CAB, that we want in the Rajya Sabha. It is an illusion that only the BJP cares for the country,” said the recently crowned Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
To maintain its agreement on paper with its ally, Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece – the Saamana newspaper – had even stated in an editorial that the CAB could be instrumental in the country heading towards an ‘invisible partition’. In this scenario, Sena stands on risky grounds and dwindling ideological support. The party’s veteran leader, in a bid to balance things out, tweeted on Tuesday, “In politics, nothing is final. It’s an evolving situation.”
राजनीति में अंतिम कुछ नही होता… चलता रहता है..
— Sanjay Raut (@rautsanjay61) December 10, 2019
What happens in the Rajya Sabha remains to be seen on Wednesday. Ahead of that, Shiv Sena has demanded changes in the CAB from the government which, if refused, the party said it will not support the bill in the Upper House.
Source: dnaindia.com