Oppn spreading lies on CAA, won’t affect Muslims: Shah
Mamata calls for returning peace and normalcy in violence-hit NE Delhi
BHUBANESWAR: West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that it was essential to control the situation and restore peace and normalcy in Delhi, where communal rioting has claimed at least 42 lives this week, cautioning against political oneupmanship over the violence, The usually outspoken Banerjee refrained from passing any comments against the Narendra Modi government at the Centre over the rioting.
She was in Bhubaneswar and came face to face with Union home minister Amit Shah at the the 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council {EZC} where she brought up the Delhi riots, but said nothing that could embarrass Shah. “In the beginning of the meeting, I said excuse me, but I am distressed over whatever happened in Delhi. Peace and normalcy needs to return,” Banerjee said soon after lunch with Shah, natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and Naveen Patnaik and Nitish Kumar, her counterparts in Odisha and Bihar.
If one part of the country faces a crisis, it keeps on continuing in other parts too,” added Banerjee, who only had raita, saying she wasn’t used to eating lunch.
Fourty two people were killed and over 350 injured in northeast Delhi after protests against and for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act turned violent.
The Trinamool Congress chief, who has been critical of the Modi government and, more specifically, Shah, holding him responsible for spreading division and hatred over CAA, did not bring up the amended citizenship law, the proposed National Register of Citizens, or the National Population Register, at the meeting “Neither CAA and NPR nor NRC were discussed in today’s meeting,” she said. Home minister Amit Shah did not speak to journalists after the EZC meeting, but an hour after it ended, he lashed out at opposition parties for spreading misinformation over the CAA, aimed at fast-tracking grant of Indian citizenship for non-muslim migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. .
“Entire opposition such as
Congress, Left and Mamata di are protesting CAA, saying minorities will lose citizenship, which is a lie. CAA has nothing to do with Indian citizens. It’s the opposition which is spreading the lie about CAA and spreading communal riots. I repeat CAA will not snatch citizenship status from anyone, but will give citizenship to people who are subjected to religious persecution in neighbouring countries. CAA is a law that grants citizenship,” Shah said at a public meeting.