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TMC issues whip to MPs, reinforces stance against Citizenship Amendment Bill

TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien has said that the CAB hurts the 'very heart and soul of the idea of India'.

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The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has issued a whip to all its members to be present at the Parliament on all four days from Monday to Thursday, in anticipation of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) being introduced by the central government, TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien said on Friday.

O'Brien was addressing a press conference in New Delhi, where he said that the CAB hurts the 'very heart and soul of the idea of India'.

"This is not about how many numbers BJP has in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. If you want to grant citizenship, grant citizenship to all. TMC has issued a whip for four days from Monday to Thursday in both houses," the TMC national spokesperson said.

He added that the TMC welcomes the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s announcement that there will be no NRC in Delhi, and alleged that through different measures, the central government was actually serving their own political purpose.

"Four months back you talked about one nation, one law. But now they are serving their own political purpose," said O'Brien in reference to the BJP's call for Uniform Civil Code.

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 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) Bill or CAB, which seeks to make it easier for refugees belonging to six communities and coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become citizens of India, was cleared by the cabinet on Wednesday for tabling in Parliament.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in January but lapsed without being cleared in Rajya Sabha.

The Opposition alleges that the bill targets Muslims and is at odds with the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution as it excludes a community.

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