The Shiv Sena on Tuesday hinted that in spite of not being part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) anymore, the party will support the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill when it is taken up for discussion and passage in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The bill was passed in Lok Sabha comfortably on Monday, after heated debates that went on for close to seven hours. Shiv Sena has supported the Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Speaking about the same, party leader Arvind Sawant told ANI, “Our position does not change on any issue. We always put our country ahead of anything else. There is no monopoly of any political party.”
Last evening, the party supported the bill suggesting some changes, days after it broke its decades-old ties with the BJP and joined hands with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form government in Maharashtra.
Late on Monday, Lok Sabha passed the Bill with 311 members supporting it and 80 opposing it. It will now be tabled in Rajya Sabha, where the BJP-led government may find it tough to sail the bill through.
As per the proposed legislation in the bill, people from Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from neighbouring countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh till December 31, 2014, will no more be treated as illegal immigrants but will be provided citizenship of the country.
In a hard-hitting reply to the debate on the proposed legislation, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said people belonging to any religion should not have any fear under the Modi government as he asserted that the bill will give relief to those minorities who have been living a painful life after facing persecution in neighbouring countries.
Earlier in the day, the home minister said that the bill has the support of 130 crore citizens of the country as it was part of the BJPs’ election manifestos for 2014 as well the 2019 general elections.