Muslims voting rights: Uddhav defends Sanjay Raut on Saamana write-up

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday came to the defence of party MP Sanjay Raut whose controversial write-up demanding disenfranchisement of Muslims to end vote bank politics drew flak from various quarters.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday came to the defence of party MP Sanjay Raut whose controversial write-up demanding disenfranchisement of Muslims to end vote bank politics drew flak from various quarters. The Sena chief sought to know why nobody reacted when AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi spoke of "finishing Hindus".

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Raut's write-up in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' sparked a massive outcry by political parties, minority outfits, commentators even though he on Tuesday held that the views he expressed had been "misinterpreted" by the media.

"I want to ask those who exploit Muslims for their political gains whether they would continue to do so if Muslims had no voting rights.

"We never said that Muslims should be stripped of their voting rights. We only highlighted how they are being exploited by political parties. If Muslims couldn't vote, there wouldn't have been vote bank politics," Thackeray told reporters in Mumbai.

Questioning those who had condemned the party's stand on Muslims, Thackeray said, "Did people who are criticising the Saamana editorial speak against (Asaduddin) Owaisi when he talked about finishing Hindus? Why did nobody speak then?"

"If Muslims are only being used this way to play politics, then they can never develop. Muslims will have no future till they are used for vote bank politics and thus Balasaheb (founder of Shiv Sena) had once suggested withdrawal of voting rights of Muslims. What he said is right," Raut wrote in 'Saamana.'

Delhi-based lawyer and civil rights activist Shehzad Poonawalla also filed a complaint with the National Minorities Commission and sought a direction to register an FIR against the Rajya Sabha MP.

He also wanted the Election Commission to initiate action against the Shiv Sena.