Mamata asks PM to withdraw CAA, NRC, NPR; joins TMC dharna after meeting
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she told Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rethink on the issue of amended Citizenship Act and urged him to withdraw CAA, NRC and NPR.
Modi told her to come to New Delhi and discuss the matter, she told reporters after a meeting with the PM at Raj Bhawan. Just after the meeting, Banerjee went straight to TMC students wing sit-in demonstration in the city against CAA, where she reiterated her stand that the new Citizenship law would never be implemented in Bengal.
Banerjee termed her meeting with
PM Modi as a "courtsey visit" and said she has raised issues regarding the due financial assitance that the state is yet to receive from the Centre. "It was a courtesy meeting. I told him about Rs 28,000 crore that the state is yet to receive from the Centre. Including Rs 7000 crore, we are supposed to get for the cyclone Fani.
"I acquainted him that we are against CAA, NPR and NRC. I also told him that protest is going on across the country against CAA, NRC and NPR. "I told him that there should not be any discrimination among masses and no citizens should be left out or tortured. I asked him that the Centre should rethink on the issues and withdraw CAA," she said. When asked what PM Modi said in reply, the TMC supremo said, "regarding the matter related to states, he said he will look into the documents and about these issues (CAA, NRC and NPR), he said he has come for a few government programmes.
So if there is an opportunity he would speak on the subjects in New Delhi".
The meeting assumes significance as the new citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state.
The Centre on Friday, in a gazette notification, announced that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will come into force from January 10. She said those who are in power at the centre should not do whatever they feel like just because they have the majority (in Parliament).
"Those who are yet to understand the situation must wake up now. There is no point in sleeping while keeping your eyes open," she said at the rally.
The meting between Prime Minister Modi and Banerjee drew sharp reactions from Congress and CPI(M), which said Trinamool Congress' "double standard" is now exposed. The Trinamool Congress leadership refuted claims of "political match-fixing" and said the meeting between the two leaders was just a government-togovernment meeting.