Mamata calls for BJP’S ouster in 2019 over NRC
NEW DELHI: Delivering a stern warning that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), whose final draft has excluded four million people of Assam, may “lead to civil war”, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday called for the Narendra Modi government’s ouster after the 2019 national elections.
Citing the draft NRC, a spate of mob lynchings and alleged crimes against Dalits and minorities, she demanded a change of power. “That is why the country needs a change. And it must change in 2019,” she said at a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) conclave in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Banerjee’s comments assume significance as the NRC issue has exposed more fault lines between the Opposition and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2019 general election. While the conclave’s subject was ‘Love the Neighbour’ , the West Bengal CM kept the focus on key social and political issues to target the ruling dispensation.
“Look at what is happening in Assam. This ruling party (BJP) is in power in Assam because of their votes and now the party says you do not belong to this country,” she said, referring to the NRC, “I am with the people. They (BJP) are trying to divide the people. They are trying to isolate tribals, dalits and minorities. The NRC is being done with a political motive. We will not let this happen. There will be a civil war, blood bath in the country.”
Later, she met home minister Rajnath Singh todiscuss the NRC issue. She asked Singh to amend the NRC Bill or introduce a new one. She informed Singh that information was being spread that NRC will also be implemented in Bengal.
After their meeting, Singh wrote in a series of tweets, “I told her that the draft NRC had been published in accordance with the provisions of Assam Accord and as per decisions taken in a tripartite meeting on February 05, 2005 between the Centre, State Government of Assam and All Assam Students Union to update NRC, 1951.”
“I also told her that the NRC updation exercise was being carried out in a totally fair, transparent, non discriminatory and legal manner,” he wrote in another tweet. Singh said: “Nobody will be harassed in this entire process and at every stage of the process, adequate opportunity of being heard will be given to all persons. The draft NRC has been prepared in accordance with the law under the monitoring of the Honble Supreme Court.”
At the conclave, Banerjee showered praise on the Christian community for their social work. She defended the Missionaries of Charity (MOC), which has been in the eye of a storm after staffers at one of its child care homes were held over the alleged sale of infants.
As she vowed to protect minorities, she also drew a fine line between the Congress and other opposition parties. “(Andhra Pradesh chief minister) Chandrababu Naidu, (his Karnataka counterpart H D) Kumaraswamy will give you protection,” she said without mentioning any Congress-ruled state. She criticized the BJP for trying to divide and rule. “If a person has committed a crime why all institutes should be raided by a particular political party,’’ she asked in reference to a crackdown on Moc-linked shelter homes following the alleged sale of infants.