Shiv Sena may oppose CAB in Rajya Sabha, says Uddhav

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, December 10

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The Shiv Sena did another flip-flop on the issue of supporting the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday, when Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said his party may not support the legislation in the Rajya Sabha.

”We will not support the Bill in the Rajya Sabha till some things become clear. We had asked some questions while supporting the bill in the Lok Sabha yesterday. But we haven’t received the answers so far.  It’s wrong to say that anyone who supports the Bill and the BJP is a patriot while those who oppose them are anti-national,” Thackeray told reporters here. He added that the central government should bring the changes to the Bill suggested by it before bringing it before the Rajya Sabha.

Early on Monday, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna had called the CAB ‘an invisible partition”. However, the party’s MPs voted for the Bill at around midnight.

The Shiv Sena’s second thoughts on support for CAB in parliament came shortly after Congress party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra hit out at those backing the Bill. “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 said on Twitter.
Thackeray refused to comment on Gandhi’s comments on Twitter. “I am not commenting on what anyone else has said. I am only speaking on behalf of my party,” he told reporters at the press conference.

The Shiv Sena is in alliance with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra.
The first indications of the Shiv Sena making another U-turn on the matter came from its Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Raut. Television channels quoted him as saying in New Delhi that the “situation was evolving and the Shiv Sena may not vote like it did in the Lok Sabha”.

The Shiv Sena has three members in the Rajya Sabha.