Taking a veiled dig at the BJP government, the TMC chief said a “few people” are trying to foment trouble in West Bengal in the name of NRC
Kolkata: TMC Supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that her government will not allow the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be implemented in West Bengal soon after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the exercise would be carried across India.
Addressing public at Sagardighi in Murshidabad district, Banerjee said nobody can take away any person’s citizenship and make an individual refugee. She challenged the central government to clarify why the names of 14 lakh Hindus and Bengalis were left out of the final NRC brought out in Assam.
TMC chief Stated that the NRC in Assam was part of the Assam Accord signed during the tenure of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Banerjee also said the exercise can never be implemented across India.
Taking a veiled dig at the BJP government, the TMC chief said a “few people” are trying to foment trouble in West Bengal in the name of NRC.
“Some people are trying to create trouble in the state by saying that NRC exercise will be carried out in Bengal. I would like to make it clear that we will never allow the NRC implementation in Bengal,” she said. “Our government won’t allow anybody to divide people on the basis of religion.”
She even claimed that there is a “conspiracy” to divide the state into religious lines, Banerjee said if someone thinks that it will be easy to divide West Bengal into communal lines, then the person is “living in a fool’s paradise”. West Bengal shares the longest and porous border with Bangladesh and has about 30% Muslim population.
“Around 19 lakh people have been left out of the Assam NRC list. Those omitted include Hindus, Bengalis, Muslims, Gorkhas, and Buddhists. They have been sent to detention centers. In Bengal, TMC will never allow any detention center,” said Banerjee.
On Tuesday Shah told in Rajya Sabha during the day that NRC will be implemented nationwide, and asserted that no individual from any religion needs to be afraid.
“The process of NRC will be carried out across India. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried. It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC,” Shah said in response to a supplementary during the Question Hour in the RS. He said there is no provision in NRC that excludes people belonging to other religions.
She also added that there are some people who want to create fissures between people in the Darjeeling Hills, between Rajbanshis and Kamtapuris in north Bengal, between Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and Bengalis who have lived here for decades, Banerjee said those indulged in such conspiracies will not be successful. “It is enough to have one citizenship document. Even if you don’t need rations that are provided at a subsidised rate by the government, ensuring to have digital ration cards. Don’t be misguided the people who want to divide one community to another,”.
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