No Clarity on Citizenship Amendment Act: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, on Monday, said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has “no clarity” in it. Shiv Sena boycotted the Rajya Sabha voting of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday, last week over the contradiction of not getting any appropriate answers to the questions raised in the lower house. After staging a walkout from the Parliament, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, “Yes, Shiv Sena has boycotted the voting”. 

Uddhav Thackeray on CAA 

The Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra CM, Uddhav Thackeray while addressing the media at an event said, “The questions we asked in Lok Sabha on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 were not answered. There is no clarity on the Citizenship Act”. Thackeray further said that there is no clarity regarding how many people will come to our country and from where they will come. He further questioned where these people will stay after coming to India. 

Read: Citizenship Amendment Act will shred India's soul, time to rise to save the country: Sonia

Sanjay Raut on Shiv Sena's walkout from RS 

Speaking to the media after walking out of the Rajya Sabha, abandoning the voting on CAB, Raut said, "We wanted a few answers to our questions. But I and my party thought that if we are not getting any answers properly then there is no point in opposing or supporting the bill." Further, speaking about vote bank politics, he said, "The vote bank politics should not be played. It is not correct. Do not attempt to create a Hindu-Muslim divide again. Also, there is nothing in this Bill for Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka”. 

Read: ACCESSED: List of MPs who didn't vote on CAB in the Rajya Sabha

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 

The Act seeks to provide citizenship to the minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This will be applicable to the members of these communities having arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014. Moreover, they will not be considered as illegal migrants. 

Read: Sonia Gandhi slams BJP over CAA says 'attack on students will be Modi's end'

Additionally, the mandatory residence period for naturalised citizenship for these communities would be reduced to 5 years. Several parties in the North East such as the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) have been vehemently opposed to this Bill. To ameliorate their concerns, the Centre has exempted a major part of the North East from the ambit of the CAA. The opposition contends that the Bill discriminates on the basis of religion, which might go against Article 14, which guarantees the right to equality.  

Read: Kamal Haasan's party MNM opposes Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Supreme Court