Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee warned the BJP not to play with fire Thursday in the name of National Register of Citizens (NRC). She asserted she would never allow the exercise in the state.
Mamata Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, challenged BJP leaders to touch even one citizen of West Bengal in the name of NRC.
“We will never allow NRC in Bengal. We will not allow them to divide people on religious and caste lines. We will not accept the NRC implemented in Assam. They have silenced the people of Assam by using the police and the administration but they cannot do so in Bengal,” the Chief Minister said while addressing an anti-NRC rally here.
The NRC seems to be the latest flashpoint between the TMC and the BJP in West Bengal, with the ruling party opposing it and the saffron side advocating it to throw out infiltrators.
Mamata Banerjee, who has been one of the most vociferous critics of the NRC in Assam, said, “Over 19 lakh people are left out in the final list of NRC in Assam which includes Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists. What more proof of identity do you need even after 70 years of Independence? Why do we need to give them our proof of identity?”
During the Lok Sabha campaigning, BJP president Amit Shah had said his party will replicate the NRC exercise in West Bengal on coming to power at the Centre to ‘throw out’ infiltrators but Hindu refugees will not be touched.
“The BJP is saying they would throw out two crore Bangladeshi infiltrators. I challenge them to touch even two people. If they play with fire, they would get a befitting reply. We have been living harmoniously for decades. The BJP can’t divide us,” Mamata asserted at the rally.
The TMC chief led the protest march from Sinthee to Shyambazar five-point crossing, a distance of kilometres away, in North Kolkata.
Meanwhile West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh claimed Thursday that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the state is protecting more than one crore Rohingyas and Bangladeshi Muslims. Addressing a press meet here, Ghosh iterated that the BJP will implement NRC in Bengal and throw out infiltrators.
Banerjee had said earlier in the day that her government would never allow the exercise in the state. Accepting her challenge, Dilip Ghosh said Banerjee would ‘soon get to see how the BJP implements NRC in Bengal’ and throw out Bangladeshi infiltrators, who have now become a trusted vote bank of the TMC.
“In the last few years, around two crore Rohingya and Bangaldeshi Muslims have entered West Bengal illegally. Of that, one crore have moved to other parts of the country and the rest resides in Bengal under TMC government’s protection. They have to be thrown out from Bengal and the BJP will do it. Sooner or later, NRC will be implemented in Bengal and Banerjee will witness it,” Ghosh asserted.
PTI