Union Home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday took a swipe at BJP’s former ally Shiv Sena after the Maharashtra-based party opposed the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Rajya Sabha. The Shiv Sena had initially declared that it will support the legislation in both the Houses. The party voted in favour of the bill in the Lok Sabha but changed its track the next day and staged a walkout before voting began in the Rajya Sabha.
The Shiv Sena has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha and three in the Rajya Sabha. Just ahead of the division in the Upper House last night, the three MPs of the Shiv Sena left the House. The Shiv Sena later reasoned that it could not support a law that had no clarity on the issues it had raised earlier. The Bill was eventually passed in the Rajya Sabha by a majority of 125 to 105.
During the debate in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Amit Shah took a sharp dig at the Sena for changing tack within 24 hours. Shah wondered how a party like Shiv Sena, which claims to follow a hardcore Hindutva ideology, was opposing the bill in the Rajya Sabha purely for the sake of power. He said this while referring to the fact that the Shiv Sena forged a post-post alliance with political rivals the NCP and Congress in Maharashtra to form a non-BJP government.
There are multiple reports claiming Shiv Sena was under pressure from the Congress to oppose the bill in the Upper House and the Congress was upset with the party’s stand on the proposed law in the Lok Sabha.
Shah went on to ask what made Shiv Sena change its stand overnight after supporting the bill in Lok Sabha. “Chairman, today I am surprised at how people change for the sake of power. The Shiv Sena supported the bill in the Lok Sabha. I want to know… don’t tell me but tell the people of Maharashtra what happened in one night that the Shiv Sena has changed its stand,” he said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday night.
The Shiv Sena, which voted in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha, opposed it in Rajya Sabha. While participating in the debate, party MP Sanjay Raut said that the draft law should have been debated on the basis of “humanity, not religion”. Raut added that his party does not need to prove how “staunch Hindu” and “patriotic” the party is.
