Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were making contradictory statements on the National Register of Citizens and wondered who was speaking the truth.
Addressing a rally here, Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said there was ‘no bigger fraud than the BJP’, and people should be aware of the saffron party’s intentions.
“The prime minister is saying there has been no discussion or proposal on (nationwide implementation of NRC. But a few days ago, BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said NRC exercise would be carried out across the country,” pointed out Banerjee.
“Both the statements are contradictory. We wonder who is speaking the truth. They are trying to create confusion,” the West Bengal chief minister added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a rally Sunday in Delhi , said his government never discussed a nationwide NRC since coming to power for the first time in 2014.
“Whatever we have been saying is in public domain. Whatever the BJP has said is in public domain too. It is for people to decide,” the TMC chief said.
The BJP is trying to divide India but people of the country will not let that happen. As long as I am alive, I will not allow them to implement CAA or NRC in Bengal and divide the country on religious lines. In Assam, where the BJP is in power, detention centres have been built. In Bengal, we will never build any such centre,” asserted Banerjee.
Hitting out at BJP working president JP Nadda over his allegation that she was only concerned about her vote bank, the CM said no one should lecture her on what were to be done.
“We have done our bit for the Matuas and Namasudhras. Where was the BJP when Matua matriarch Binapani Devi fell ill? It was Mamata Banerjee, who used to look after her,” she said, mocking Nadda for taking a ride atop a hood-open jeep, rather than walking alongside his supporters during Monday’s rally. Matuas had moved to Bengal from Bangladesh in large numbers since 1947.
Banerjee, who had been at the forefront of protests against the proposed NRC and the new citizenship law, led three marches and two protest meetings crisscrossing the city since last week. She is scheduled to address another rally in districts of North Bengal next week.
Agencies