Let us restore peace, Mamata tells Modi

KOLKATA: Upping the ante against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the amended citizenship law, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday accusing it of “dividing the country” and introducing new laws by taking advantage of its numbers in Parliament.

“You (BJP) were born in 1980. You were not there with Gandhi, Netaji, Nehru or Rajendra Prasad during freedom movement. But today, after being in power for just five years, you want to decide who is a citizen of India and who is not. Who are you?” said Banerjee at a mammoth rally at Park Circus Maidan in south Kolkata.

The chief minister spoke mostly in Hindi and her speech was marked by lines from Urdu poems and couplets, including one of her own. The area has a sizeable Muslim population.

Earlier in the day, she appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally intervene and stop the nationwide violence. “Please let us restore peace. You are the Prime Minister of the country, not the Prime Minister of BJP. Please intervene and stop this unrest. When a democratic movement reaches such a proportion, a government should bow before the people. As a citizen of India, please say you are withdrawing CAA and NRC,” Banerjee said at the party headquarters in Kolkata, where she had called a meeting of party legislators to decide her course.

Reacting to her statement, Bengal BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said, “The chief minister is herself creating unrest. I advise her to stop worrying about the country. The Prime Minister is active and all states except West Bengal are taking appropriate steps.”

On Thursday, while addressing a rally of TMC’s youth and student wing members in Kolkata, Mamata had demanded a referendum under the supervision of the United Nations to find out if people wanted CAA. This prompted the BJP to react sharply, and even governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, in a series of tweets, urged her to withdraw her statement. “What I meant was that let there be an opinion poll on CAA and NRC by experts and let the UN observe it. I said let the human rights commission also look into this. My statement is being misinterpreted. I don’t want to react to what BJP is saying. Whenever they cannot digest something they say we are antinationals,” she said. “The UN has many charters. They are watching the situation,” she added.

‘WHEN A DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT REACHES SUCH A PROPORTION, A GOVERNMENT SHOULD BOW BEFORE THE PEOPLE. AS A CITIZEN OF INDIA, PLEASE SAY YOU ARE WITHDRAWING CAA AND NRC,’ SHE SAID