Sena backs Centre on NRC, seeks 'ghar wapsi' of Kashmiri pandits

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Friday came out in support of the Modi government over the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), but asked whether the Centre also had the courage to ensure the "ghar wapsi" of displaced Kashmiri pandits.

The BJP ally said those who posed a threat to the country's security must be thrown out and the infiltrators in Kashmir must be eliminated. The party said abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to J&K, was as much a nationalistic work as implementing the NRC list.

"The BJP is working hard to throw out the 40 lakh infiltrators in Assam. Driving out such illegal immigrants is a patriotic work and we congratulate the central government on it. Illegal residents, whether they are Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis or Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar, they must be thrown out of the country," the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"If what is happening in Assam now had happened in Kashmir as well, people across the country would have hoisted the saffron flags of Hindutva atop their houses," it added.

The release of the final draft of the NRC in Assam has triggered a massive political firestorm with both the ruling BJP and the Opposition, led by the Congress, trying to corner each other. Names of over 40 lakh people in Assam have been excluded from the NRC, prepared following a long-drawn process to identify people living in the northeastern state illegally. While the opposition parties have accused the BJP of making Indian citizens refugees in their own country, the saffron party said national security was its top priority and the opposition was spreading misinformation.

"The issue of national security is not only restricted to the 40 lakh infiltrators in Assam. The situation in Kashmir is worsening day by day. There is more threat from Pakistan, where military rule is imminent under the leadership of Imran Khan.

"Forty lakh illegal foreign residents in Assam have changed the geography, history and culture of that state. The same is happening in Kashmir..." the Sena asked. The Uddhav Thackeray-led party stated that the issue of Kashmiri pandits was not just about Hindutva, but it was important in terms of national security and the Hindu culture.