Bengal 4th State to Pass Anti-CAA Resolution; Can't Support Those Who Aim to Divide India, Says Didi

Kolkata: West Bengal on Monday became the fourth state — after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan — to pass a resolution against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Assembly. It also called upon the government to roll back the National Population Register (NPR) and the proposed pan-India implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The resolution, passed with an overwhelming majority, was moved by Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee at a special session of the House.

"We were the first Assembly to discuss the matter in September 2019. We passed a resolution against the NRC (National Register of Citizens)," said TMC president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the assembly. "An atmosphere of intolerance and hatred has swept across the country. We cannot support those who aim to divide India."

The resolution was supported by Left and the Congress members.

On January 20, Banerjee had announced that an anti-CAA resolution will be passed in the state assembly.

Banerjee on Monday urged the opposition CPI(M) and the Congress to put aside their narrow political differences and fight together against the "fascist BJP government" at the Centre.

Contending that the NPR, NRC and CAA were correlated, Banerjee said the new citizenship law is "anti-people".

Banerjee, while speaking on the anti-CAA resolution tabled in the Assembly, demanded that the contentious law be immediately repealed. "The CAA is anti-people, anti-constitutional... We want this law to be repealed immediately," she said.

Insisting that the Congress and the Left Front should stop spreading canards against her government, she said, "Time has come to forget our narrow differences and fight together to save the country."

Referring to the criticism made by the Congress and the CPI(M) over her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to the state, Banerjee said the slogan 'Didi- Modi are both sides of same coin' will boomerang for the opposition parties.

"Our state government had the guts to skip the NPR meeting (in Delhi); if the BJP wants it can dismiss my government," she added.

(With inputs from agencies)