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Told PM Modi CAA should be rolled back, says Mamata Banerjee
Soon after meeting the PM on Saturday, the West Bengal chief minister attended a demonstration against CAA by the TMC’s students’ wing in Kolkata, where she reiterated her party’s stand that the state government will not implement the new citizenship law or the NRC in the state.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on Saturday and said she urged him during their discussions to withdraw the recently amended citizenship law that has triggered protests across the country.
The Trinamool Congress chief, who met Modi at the Raj Bhawan in Kolkata, said she told the prime minister that the party was against the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). “I asked him that the Centre should rethink on the issues and withdraw CAA,” she said, adding that PM Modi asked her to come to Delhi to discuss the issue.
Hours later, Modi and Banerjee shared a stage at the Millennium Park as the PM inaugurated a “light and sound show” as a part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Kolkata Port Trust. The Congress and CPI(M) attacked the Trinamool chief after her meeting at the Raj Bhawan, saying her “double standards” stood exposed. Banerjee said the decision to meet Modi was her “constitutional obligation”.
Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, have staunchly criticised CAA, which fast-tracks the process of granting of Indian citizenship to religious minorities from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. They allege that the NPR and the NRC could be linked with recent amendments to the citizenship law, that could affect minorities in India. At least two dozen people have died in protest-related violence across the country since the legislation was passed by Parliament in December last year.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government says the new law is not divisive and it does not threaten the existing citizenship status of any Indian national.
Soon after meeting the PM on Saturday, the West Bengal chief minister attended a demonstration against CAA by the TMC’s students’ wing in the city, where she reiterated her party’s stand that the state government will not implement the new citizenship law or the NRC in the state. “The CAA notification will only remain on paper but will never be implemented. We will not implement the CAA...This is unconstitutional, illegal and wrong,” Banerjee said while addressing an anti-CAA rally near Raj Bhawan. The Centre on Friday, in a gazette notification, announced that CAA came into effect from January 10.
While the Prime Minister did not speak about CAA in his speeches on Saturday, after dedicating four renovated heritage buildings to the nation in Kolkata, he said that salient chapters in Indian history have not found place in the way the subject has been dealt with during the British rule and even after independence.
“It is very unfortunate that during British rule and even after independence the drafting of the country’s history ignored some salient chapters of our history. The history we read has no reference to what the common Indian people were doing during different times. Didn’t they have any existence?” Modi said.
Earlier on Sunday evening, some members of the Left student unions reached the spot of the TMC’s protest and shouted slogans seeking an explanation from Banerjee for meeting PM Modi. To this, the chief minister said her meeting was a “courtesy visit”, news agency PTI reported.
“I am the only leader who met Narendra Modi and told him that the CAA, NRC and NPR cannot be implemented. We have been protesting from day one against CAA. The issue before both of us is the same, so please don’t deviate from it,” she said. The West Bengal CM said that during the meeting, she also raised the issue of financial assistance worth ?28,000 crore that is owed to the state from the Centre, and the PM promised to look into the issue.
The opposition Congress accused the chief minister of having a tacit understanding with the BJP. “She is boycotting the all-party meeting against citizenship law that Sonia Gandhi convened in Delhi on January 13 but fixed an appointment with Modi on January 11. Her real intentions are out in the open,” Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra said, referring to the TMC’s decision not to attend a meet called by the grand old party that is expected to present a unified Opposition front.
The Trinamool Congress leadership refuted the claims and said it was just a government-to-government meeting.
Amid widespread agitations, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched outreach campaigns to clear perceptions about CAA, and maintains that the CAA does not affect any Indian citizen or community.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister’s trip prompted separate demonstrations in Kolkata, with protesters gathering outside the airport ahead of his arrival for the two-day visit on Saturday afternoon. Many protesters formed human chains and protested with banners as the PM visited the city.
