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The Shiv Sena amped up its pitch against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha during the debate on the citizenship bill, starting with a strong rebuttal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reported comment that some parties were speaking in the same language as Pakistan.
Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told the Rajya Sabha that the citizenship bill that creates a special dispensation for non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan should be looked at from the prism of humanity, not religion.
Raut’s brief speech – his party was allotted three minutes and his microphone was switched off when he exceeded six – did not criticise the provisions of the bill. It is true, he said, that minorities were being harassed in India’s neighbourhood and asked parties to ensure there was no politics around it.
Instead, he kept his focus on the statements from the BJP, underlined his party’s Hindutva credentials and launched a sharp attack at its former ally and PM Modi.
Raut also referred to reports of PM Modi’s remarks at the meeting of the BJP parliamentary party MPs earlier in the morning.
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“It is being said that those who oppose this bill are traitors and those who support patriots…. The family of 2 jawans, both muslims, who died in Kashmir are opposed to this bill…. But the families of martyrs can’t be traitors,” he said.
“We are also citizens of this country. People voted for all of us. This is not Pakistan’s assembly…. If you don’t like Pakistan’s language, we have such a strong government, why don’t you then finish it off (Pakistan ko khatam karo),” he said.
Raut also stressed that people who are opposing this bill in the northeast were also citizens. “So nobody needs to give us a certificate of patriotism.
It is known how hardline hindus we are… we don’t need your certificate,” he said.
The Sena had voted in support of the legislation in the Lok Sabha but has changed its stand for the Rajya Sabha where it has declared its support would depend on the government’s decision on its two suggestions: inclusion of Tamil refugees under the expedited citizenship law and freezing voting rights for 25 years. That change in stand is being linked to a phone call from the Congress, which was uncomfortable at the initial stand of the Sena, its new alliance partner in Maharashtra.
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