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Days after the Central government notified the Rules for implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee questioned the Narendra Modi government as to why they were not following the commonly practised method of granting citizenship that is followed throughout the world.
"CAA is related to NRC. In the USA, if anyone studies there for five years, he gets a green card. Everywhere across the world, countries follow a similar rule. But what have they done in Bengal, in India?" They have eliminated the entire Muslim community those who have come from Bangladesh or various other places," Banerjee said in an address to people at a public distribution event in Siliguri. Pointing out that the Rules lack clarity, she suggested, "If someone gets rights we are happy. You can leave it to the DMs (District Magistrates). You can follow the system which is practiced throughout the world. I don't have a problem with that." "If someone has stayed in this country for 5 or 10 years, or married someone from here...there are several cases like this," she added. Warning Hindu migrants against the CAA, Banerjee said, "Hindus should not forget that when NRC, CAA was implemented in Assam, among 19 lakh illegal migrants, 13 lakh were Hindu Bengalis. Keep this in mind." In an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Chief Minister said, "The BJP keeps blabbering 'Hindu Hindu'. Theirs is a different shade of Hindu. This is not the Hindu religion that celebrates Durga Puja or which was followed by Ramakrishna." "It is not the Hindu of the Vedas, Swami Vivekananda, Birsa Munda, Panchanan Barma, Matua Thakur. They have created a new breed of Hindu religion which tarnishes and disrespects the very Hindu religion," she said. Reminding people of the central government's recent act of allegedly deactivating the Aadhar cards of some citizens from Bengal, she said, "Remember they started making Aadhar cards dysfunctional? I had pressurized them and so they gave up. Why did they do this? Whenever you appeal, you will not even lose your voting rights, what will happen to your property, to your children who study here?" In response to a question from a reporter on her younger brother Babun Banerjee expressing displeasure over the party re-nominating Prasun Banerjee from the Howrah Lok Sabha constituency, Mamata Banerjee said that she is hurt and does not consider him to be from her family. "We have around 32 members in our family. No one is like this. Everyone is unhappy about this...Some people get exceedingly greedy when they grow up. I do not consider him to be anyone from my family from today. Prasun Banerjee is an Arjuna awardee...," Banerjee said in a press conference after the event. "If anyone from my family says that they want a ticket for MP or MLA election, then I will be considered a dynast. I don't believe in this. I believe in humanity," she explained. (ANI)
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