Won’t allow detention centres in Maharashtra for NRC, says Uddhav Thackeray

Thackeray had earlier told the media that he would wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on a bunch of petitions challenging the CAA-NRC.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has assured the Muslim community that he will not allow any detention camps to be set up in the state under the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray with his son Aditya Thackeray (ANI file photo)

According to Thackeray, there was a misunderstanding over these detention camps. “The detention camps are only for foreign nationals who have served their sentence so that they can follow with their deportation process. However, we will not allow any detention camps in the state,” said Thackeray in connection with the concerns raised over NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) when a delegation met him on Monday.

In addition, he said his Government will ensure that there would not be any injustice to them in light of the recent controversy over NRC and CAA.

However, unlike many of his counterparts in other states, he did not say that NRC would not be implemented in Maharashtra. This is despite the fact that both his allies Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have opposed the same. Thackeray had earlier told the media that he would wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on a bunch of petitions challenging the CAA-NRC.

He was speaking to a delegation of Muslims that met him on Monday to voice their concerns on the NRC and CAA stating that there were large scale apprehensions among the community on the twin issues.

Thackeray, however, sought to assuage their fears stating “currently there is an atmosphere of fear and mistrust”.

“My Government will ensure there would no injustice to the Muslim community,” said Thackeray. He said his Government’s main thrust is to provide livelihood to the youth of the community with the aim to make India a superpower as envisaged by former President APJ Abdul Kalam.

Samajwadi Party chief Abu Azmi who was a part of the delegation expressed satisfaction over the assurances. “It was a huge relief to Muslims that unlike the previous BJP regime, the current dispensation is sensitive to the sentiments of the Muslims,” said Azmi.