Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday maintained his stance on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) that the law did not take away any one’s citizenship and there was no need to fear it.
“I have made my stand clear on these issues and I have also discussed it with the alliance partners Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP),” Thackeray said while talking to reporters on the eve of the Budget session of the state legislature.
Replying to a query on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis’ statement that a state government cannot change the questionnaire of the NPR, Thackeray said, “Senior members of the three parties (Sena, NCP and Congress) can sit together and discuss about the possible complications in its implementation in the state”.
Thackeray also taunted the BJP for the violence during the anti-CAA protests in the states like Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
“The protests against the CAA have been staged in Maharashtra very peacefully unlike the states where the law and order is the responsibility of the BJP. The attack on the JNU students in Delhi was not less than a ‘terror attack,” he said.
Meanwhile, just a couple of days after he backed the National Population Register (NPR), Thackeray announced that a high-power committee comprising members from all three ruling parties would study it before any decision was made on its implementation in the state.
“I do not see any objectionable content in the NPR, but we will check if there is anything objectionable and whether only relevant information has been sought in the NPR. The committee of the three senior members will study it,” said the chief minister, speaking to media persons on the eve of the budget session of the state legislature that begins Monday.
Thackeray softened his stand on NPR reportedly after Congress and the NCP expressed their unhappiness over the his support to it.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar met Thackeray and reportedly asserted their opinion on the issue.
Congress leader Manish Tewari had tweeted on Friday that Thackeray needs to be briefed about the CAA and NPR.
“Thackeray needed to understand how NPR was the basis of NRC. Once you do NPR, you cannot stop NRC,” he tweeted.
So Thackeray’s statements are seen as a bid to balance out the differences on contentious issues to avoid embarrassment in the session.
He said even though the law was passed by the Centre and the contents of the NPR were decided by it, the citizens have the right to decide how to live.
The chief minister said that the three ruling parties were on the same page as far as the implementation the NPR goes and there was no discord among them.
