Mumbai:
Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly, Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday felt that the Shiv Sena should not come under pressure of anyone and should be firm on their stand that they have always stood for. He was replying to queries from newspersons on Sena doing a rethink on its stand over supporting the passage of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Rajya Sabha on December 11.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Naseem Khan has termed the move of the Sena to support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the passage of the CAB in the Lok Sabha as a gross violation of the Common Minimum Program (CMP).
In a statement issued here he said “by supporting the CAB, the Shiv Sena has not only violated the CMP drafted by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) but has also indirectly supported the BJP. The Sena should clear it’s stand on the issue. The CAB tabled by the BJP in the Lok Sabha is against the very nature of the Indian Constitution and is an attack on democracy. And before supporting such a bill the Shiv Sena did not take the Congress party, who is an ally in the state, into confidence”.
The former chief minister wondered whether there was any pressure being exerted by the Congress on the Sena which is making it change its stance suddenly on National Register of Citizens (NRC) and CAB. Fadnavis further argued that the Sena should stand firm on its old stand of nationalism and Hindutva and not succumb to any pressure from anyone.
When asked for his impression on the MVA government of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis remarked “so many days have gone yet nothing has proceeded in government, no expansion, no portfolio distribution. All that I am just hearing is news about stoppage of various projects. We are ready to support government but they should help farmers who are suffering a lot.”
Asked to comment upon the week long winter session beginning from December 16 at Nagpur, the LoP remarked “I feel Nagpur winter session is just for name sake as there is no distribution of portfolios session is just of 5 days and we have demanded that the government this winter session should be extended for two weeks but our demand has been rejected, I think we are doing wrong with what we promised to the people of Vidarbha.”
