Even as several parts of the country are witnessing anti-CAA riots organised by various Muslim groups, Shiv Sena politician Sanjay Raut is going to attend a function organised by the Islamist organisation Jamaat-e-Islami Hind to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Mumbai on Saturday.
Raut, who is considered as a chief architect in stitching the unholy alliance between the ideological disparate parties of Congress and NCP with his party Shiv Sena, will be a part of a program organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Mumbai and Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) at Marathi Patrakar Sangh.
Along with him, the function will see the participation of Justice (Retd) BG Kolse Patil, senior counsel Mihir Desai and PCR President and senior advocate Yusuf Muchchala to debate the relationship between the CAA and the NRC and understand their constitutional implications.
Kolse Patil was accused of sexual harassment during the Me Too movement. The lady in question had gone to Patil’s house to record an interview with him. The interview was recorded inside the house as there were lots of noise outside. At the end of the interview, he asked the woman why the top button of her kurta is open and said that he thought they can be ‘friends’.
It can be noted that justice Patil was one of the organisers of Elgar Parishad which was held in Maharashtra last year, which led to the Bhima Koregaon riots. Commenting on the arrest of ‘urban naxals’ by Pune police in relation to the Bhima Koregaon violence and plot to kill PM, he has said that the allegations are false and arrests were made to stifle dissent.
Justice Patil is also known for his anti-Hindu and casteist speeches. In one such speech in 2016, he has alleged that RSS is spreading Hindu terror. In another speech he had said that ‘RSS is the biggest enemy of India, we need to defeat the poisonous ideology of RSS on the ideological level’. He also had mentioned that ‘Hindutva is nothing but deluding name of Brahmanism and the real enemy of India are Brahmanism and Capitalism’. He also has a problem with the word Hindustan, as according to him it refers to Hindus only and all Indians are not Hindus.
He has even made an outrageous allegation that RSS has taken money from Pakistan’s ISI. Attending an event of Islamist fundamentalist Popular Front of India (PFI), he had insinuated that RSS chief la Mohan Bhagwat received ₹24 lakh to destabilise India, saying that ‘Brahmin-wadi’ people are dividing Hinduism.
The development comes amidst Shiv Sena’s hazy stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act. Earlier, after supporting the Act in the lower house of the parliament, Shiv Sena abstained from voting in the upper house of the parliament. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads a precarious alliance in the state of Maharashtra, was mealy-mouthed about his party’s support to the CAA. Passing the buck to the apex court, Thackeray said that he would wait for the Supreme Court verdict on CAA to decide whether to support or oppose the NRC.
Shiv Sena had already shunned its Hindutva agenda to slake its power-thirst by forming a government in Maharashtra by aligning with the so-called ‘secular’ parties of Congress and NCP. The two alliance partners of the Shiv Sena- Congress and NCP, have openly opposed the government’s move to enact the CAA and held demonstrations at many parts in the country against the possible implementation of the NRC. Shiv Sena seems to be caught between two stools to appear on the same page as its partners while at the same time do not betray their traditional vote bank who have welcomed the central government’s decision to legislate the CAA.
