Invisible partition

The Shiv Sena has accused the Centre of trying to bring an "invisible partition" among Hindus and Muslims through the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which will be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana', also questioned whether "selective acceptance" of Hindu illegal immigrants will act as a trigger for a religious war in the country.

The bill proposes to give citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians if they entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.

"There is no dearth of problems in India now but still we are inviting new ones such as CAB. It looks like the Centre has made an invisible partition of Hindus and Muslims over the bill," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

"It is true that there is no other country for Hindus except Hindustan. But by accepting only Hindus among the illegal immigrants… Will it be a trigger of a religious war in the country?" the Sena questioned.

The Sena also said that the illegal immigrants living in India should be sent back to their countries of origin, a stated position of the BJP.

"The exact number of such illegal immigrants should be known. If it is in lakhs then where are they going to be settled in India?" it asked.

The Sena said the number of illegal immigrants in Maharashtra is already putting a lot of pressure on local bodies, in providing civic amenities.

"In such a scenario, states like Gujarat and Karnataka will have to play a major and humanitarian role to accommodate these immigrants," the Sena said referring to the states where the BJP is in power.

The Shiv Sena's senior leader Sanjay Raut also hit out at Union minister Amit Shah over the bill.

Raut said that though Hindus must be given citizenship, the BJP can rest allegations of creating a vote bank by not giving the immigrants voting rights.

"Illegal Intruders should be thrown out. immigrant Hindus must be given citizenship, but @AmitShah let's give rest to allegations of creating vote bank & not give them voting rights, what say (sic)?" Raut tweeted.

He further said, "And yes what about pandits, have they gone back to kashmir after article 370 was removed (sic)."