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Let UN conduct referendum on CAA, says Mamata; multiple rallies choke Kolkata
No violence was reported from any part of the state even though several protests against the newly amended citizenship law were held at different places in the state, where it has become a sensitive issue.
“Let United Nations and human rights bodies hold a referendum on citizenship law. Let them study it. All political parties and religious groups will stay out of this process,” Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said at huge rally organised in the heart of Kolkata by Trinamool Congress’s youth and student wings against Citizenship Amendment Bill and National Register of Citizens.
Soon after she made the statement Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar posted two tweets, urging Banerjee to withdraw her statement saying nation comes first.
No violence was reported from any part of the state even though several protests against the newly amended law were held at different places, where it has become a sensitive issue. In the past week, violence has been reported from some places with protesters burning down a railway station in Murshidabad.
Mocking BJP leaders, Banerjee said, “If you ask for my father’s birth certificate you should produce the same as well. Do all these BJP leaders have birth certificates of their parents? BJP is insulting the dead by asking for credentials of our forefathers. They do not have the intelligence required to do something good for people.”
Traffic was paralysed in large parts of Kolkata with the TMC, Left parties, Congress and a citizens’ group organising separate rallies, almost around the same time, in solidarity with protesters in the rest of the country.
Congress leaders read out the preamble to the Constitution at the end of their rally that started from the Tipu Sultan mosque and ended at the Ram Mandir in central Kolkata. Left leaders said they would soon hold rallies jointly with the Congress. The BJP took out a procession in south Kolkata in support of the new law.
At the TMC rally, Banerjee shouted “united India” slogans and used the logo that she used for the first time before the Lok Sabha elections when she tried to unite regional parties against BJP and its allies.
“Some days ago they said Aadhaar card is mandatory for having bank accounts, ration cards, passports and phone connections...” the chief minister said.
“Ram Chandra Guha was insulted today because he spoke against CAB...,” said Banerjee.
“They are saying Hindus won’t have to produce documents. It is a big lie. A law applies to all. They told the same lie in Assam and 13 lakh Hindus were left out of NRC,” she said.
