The Mamata Banerjee Government will call a special session of the State Assembly on January 27 to table a resolution rejecting the Citizenship Amendment Act. The date was given by State Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Trinamool Congress general secretary Partho Chatterjee.
The formal announcement came a day after Banerjee declared that she would soon get a resolution against CAA passed in the State Assembly.
The development also comes as an aftermath of members of the minority community openly questioning the TMC Ministers — Jyotipriya Mullick and Bratya Basu at various organisational forums as to why the Bengal Government was not following in the footsteps of Kerala and Punjab which had earlier passed resolutions against the controversial Act.
“I don’t have to say anything about who said what. But I can only say that our Chief Minister has decided to call a special session of the Assembly to pass a resolution against the CAA,” Chatterjee said adding the State Government’s credentials could not be questioned as it had already passed similar resolutions against National Register for Citizens and National Population Register.
“I have personally spoken to opposition leader Abdul Mannan (Congress) and would also speak to CPI(M) Legislator Party Leader Sujan Chakrabarty seeking their support for the resolution which will be tabled on January 27,” Chatterjee said.
The decision which the Government had taken on Tuesday should have been taken earlier Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury said reacting to the Tuesday’s announcement adding “the Congress and the Left had moved a similar resolution earlier in the Assembly but the TMC refused to take it up for discussion now for some unknown reasons they have agreed to pass the resolution only after Kerala and Punjab Governments have done it… it is better late than never.”
Chakrabarty wondered “why they rejected our move when we wanted to table a similar resolution a few days in the Assembly denouncing CAA. It seems that only after getting the green signal from her BJP friends in Delhi that the Chief Minister has now decided to table the resolution. In any case we have no problem in supporting it.”
He added how the TMC Government had grudgingly passed a resolution against NRC and NPR tabled by the opposition “but only after tabling it in their party’s name.”
Chatterjee would not dwell much on the issue but said “We have already submitted the resolution to the Speaker on January 20.”
He also would not comment on why the TMC was moving the Supreme Court challenging the CAA a la Kerala and Punjab. “I am in State politics and will not be in a position to take questions on things at national level. Please ask the questions to Derek O’ Brien who will be the appropriate person to take the question.”
On whether the Chief Minister would take up Home Minister Amit Shah’s challenge to debate the CAA at national forum, the senior Bengal Minister said “we will take it up for discussion in the party forum before coming back to you.”
However, another Minister and senior party leader Tapas Roy said there is no problem for any debate because it is Mamata Banerjee who had for the first time given an open challenge for a debate on NRC, and CAB (before it became an Act).
Meanwhile, after the lawyers, students and civil society it was the turn of the doctors to descend on the streets against the CAA with hundreds of medicos from NRS Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday taking out processions condemning the controversial Act.