Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit the streets for the third consecutive day against the amended citizenship law and NRC.
Banerjee, along with her party colleagues, began a protest march from Howrah Maidan to Dorina Crossing at Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata. “We will never allow NRC and the amended Citizenship Act in Bengal. No one will be asked to leave the state. We believe in the coexistence of all religions, castes, and creed. All of us are citizens of this country, no one can take that away from us,” she said before commencing the march.
Ms Banerjee said that the BJP leadership should not commit the mistake of underestimating. “CAB and NRC are two sides of the same coin. They are lying when they say this will not nullify anybody’s citizenship. Don’t understand us. We are mice if you think you are rock. We will bite you into bits. You cannot scare me,” she said.
“They want to turn the entire country into a detention centre. But we will not let that happen,” she said.
Describing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as unconstitutional, undemocratic, unethical and illegal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said “You (Amit Shah) are the Home Minister of the country and not just a BJP leader. Please maintain peace in the country. You have not done ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ but ‘sabke saath sarvanash’ (disaster). Withdraw CAA & NRC, or else I will see how you implement it here,” the Bengal Chief Minister said.
Speaking at the Dorina crossing of Esplanade, the Chief Minister targeted the Union Home Minister by saying that his “job is not to start a fire but to douse the fire that is raging across the country.”
“Jab tak suraj chand rahega, hamara ladai jaari rahega (Our struggle will continue till the sun and the moon exist),” Banerjee shouted.
She sought a clarification from Mr. Shah on what he meant by saying that having an Aadhaar does not guarantee citizenship to a person.
Commenting on the violence during the CAA protests in the State, Ms Banerjee said that a few sporadic incidents have happened but the Railways have suspended all trains cutting off links with north Bengal and North East. She also came down strongly on the remarks made of MoS Railways Suresh Angadi, who had said that those destroying Railway property should be shot at. “ Is it democratic to shoot people?” she asked.
“We are all citizens,” she said and gave a call to withdraw the CAA. “CAB, NRC wapas lo,” she asked the crowd to repeat after her.
The Trinamool Congress has announced that the Chief Minister will address two more gatherings against the CAA and the NRC on Thursday at Rani Rashmoni Road and at Park Circus Maidan on Friday.
While there has been no fresh violence in West Bengal over the protest against the CAA, a number of public interest litigations were filed in the Calcutta High Court. The High Court said that it would hear together all the PILs on the issue of violence that took place during the CAA protests.
Late on Tuesday evening, an IPS officer and two other police personnel were injured during an anti-CAA procession in Sankrail of West Bengal’s Howrah district.
Meanwhile Railway services continued to be affected because of the damage of Railway properties in certain parts of the State. On Tuesday, the Eastern Railway had cancelled 19 trains to north Bengal.