Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that she was ready to support a religion-neutral Citizenship Amendment Bill and said her party would “oppose tooth and nail the Bill in its current shape.”
Attacking the Narendra Modi Government for bringing a communally oriented bill, the Bengal Chief Minister said there was no difference between the National Register for Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Bill both of which were the two sides of the same coin.
Speaking on the 27th anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition, Banerjee said NRC has claimed 30 lives in Bengal and she would not allow more deaths to happen in the State.
“We have seen 30 deaths in Bengal due to the NRC panic. No more deaths should follow. The Government is trying to create a communal divide among the citizens by introducing this Bill … no citizen can be given citizenship on the basis of religion. This is unconstitutional,” Banerjee said adding she was ready to support a religion-neutral bill.
In its current shape the bill scheduled to be tabled on December 9, Banerjee said, “both NRC and CAB are the two sides of the same coin and both are unconstitutional in their present form,”
The amended bill seeks to grant citizenship to people without valid documents from minority communities (read only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India.
Union Home Minister has on multiple occasions gone on record saying that “no Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Christian who have migrated from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh following persecution would be deprived of citizenship in India.”
The new CAB would amend the Citizenship Act of 1955. The Trinamool Congress on Friday said that it has issued a whip directing its MPs to remain present in Parliament on December 9 when it would be tabled.
The party would oppose the bill in parliament. Banerjee told the gathering in Kolkata that her party would oppose the bill at all level regardless of the fact that BJP with its brute majority might get it passed in Parliament.
“You (BJP) have majority and may pass CAB in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. But we will not accept it and will oppose till the end because we do not believe in religious discrimination.
Referring to the recent Unnao incident in Uttar Pradesh where a rape victim was set on fire, Banerjee said the state’s BJP government had not provided security to the victim. Slamming the BJP Government in Uttar Pradesh for allowing the “Unnao rape victim to be burnt alive” by tormentors Banerjee said “both the Hyderabad and Unnao incidents are shameful,” wondering “why was there a security lapse for the Unnao girl who had earlier faced life-threatening attacks on her. My heart bleeds for the victims”