Shiv Sena view unacceptable, committed to defending rights of all: Centre
New Delhi: Taking a strong stand against the call by its ally Shiv Sena for the scrapping of Muslims' voting rights, the government on Monday said such suggestions were not acceptable to it and that these "should not be discussed even hypothetically".
Minorities, including Muslims, are as much the citizens of our country as anybody else and "there can't be any differentiation on any ground," Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said.
"The suggestion to deny such rights to anybody on any grounds is not acceptable to our government," he said.
"Such suggestions or purported suggestions should not be discussed even hypothetically since the same is not acceptable and such suggestions are not allowed under the Constitution," he added.
An editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' has evoked sharp reactions from political parties which accused the party of trying to stoke communal passions and divide the people.
As the statement draws fire, Naidu further said, "It is unfortunate that some political parties are used to vote bank politics, which only harms the sections they pretend to be protecting."
The minister said it was time that such politics was abandoned in the interest of the country.
"People, institutions and organisations functioning in our constitutional scheme of things should avoid making such controversial remarks as they will not help the cause of building an inclusive and resurgent India," he said.
Naidu said that political parties should inform, educate and enable people to vote driven by larger developmental concerns and not on the basis of narrow sectarian considerations.
Reacting to the view expressed in the said editorial by Sena MP Sanjay Raut that Muslims should be disenfranchised as the community is often used for vote-bank politics, Naidu said, "We are committed to defending and upholding all the rights given to our citizens under the Constitution."
"India is perhaps the only country to give voting rights to all categories of citizens, men, women, poor or rich, literate or illiterate, irrespective of caste, creed, region and religion," Naidu pointed out.
"That is significant as even the developed countries conferred voting rights to different sections of the people in a gradual manner. People should use their right to franchise to express their felt needs and concerns and choose their government based on the ideologies of the different parties and the merit of the promises made by them,” he said.
"In our country, right to vote is a constitutional right available to all citizens irrespective of their social and economic identities," he added.
