"Once I was alone. But today, several other states are with me. We will resist the NRC, CAA," the West Bengal Chief Minister said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday conducted a protest march in Kolkata, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). At the march, Mamata reiterated her commitment to continue protesting against the CAA and the NRC until these are withdrawn.
"Who is the Citizenship Act for?" the Chief Minister asked, "We are all citizens. Didn't you cast vote? Don't you live here?" She made a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its slogan of 'Sabka saath, sabka vikaas'. "Agar sabka sath nahi rahega toh sabka vikas kaise hoga?" she asked, declaring that the BJP practices exclusionary politics. "Only BJP will remain here and everyone else will be made to leave, that is their politics," Mamata said.
Finding assurance in the solidarity of anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests across the country, she said that she is not alone anymore, in opposing the implementation of these acts. "Once I was alone. Today Delhi's CM says that he won't allow this. Bihar's CM says that he won't allow NRC. I tell them - Do not allow Citizenship Amendment Act, too. Even Madhya Pradesh's Chief Minister said that, Kerala's CM said that, everyone is coming to realize this," said Mamata Banerjee.
For context, several states - including Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Kerala have let known their opposition to the Citizenship Act.
The TMC has been opposed to the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) from its inception, with West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee even claiming that the CAB and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were "two sides of the same coin" and the party's stance to oppose it till the end.
"The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and the NRC are two sides of the same coin. We won't allow the implementation of CAB in Bengal. I urge other political parties to not support the Bill," Banerjee had said while addressing TMC workers in Kolkata on Friday.
She had echoed her point in several rallies across West Bengal in the past few months, driving home the fact that the TMC is not going to let this issue go and it is likely that the NRC becomes a key factor for the TMC in contesting the 2021 Legislative Assembly elections. She had claimed that the centre's schemes were communal and discriminatory in nature.
"If you give citizenship to all the communities, we will accept it. But if you discriminate on the basis of religion, we will oppose it and also fight against it," Banerjee had said.
The West Bengal CM has also said that the Bill (now an Act) is being taken up by the centre to divert the attention of the people from the economic slowdown, adding that in this context, 12 Opposition parties have met in the Parliament on Friday to discuss what their strategy to oppose the Bill would be.
The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which makes it easier for refugees belonging to six communities and coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become citizens of India. The Opposition alleges that the law targets Muslims and is at odds with the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution as it excludes a community.
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 "Photo: Zee Media Newsroom")
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