HM’s job is to douse the fire, says Mamata
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minster Amit Shah on Wednesday were put in the pillory by the Opposition over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and the aftermath.
Assailing Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his comment that Aadhaar was not a proof of citizenship, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked him why was it then linked to bank accounts, voter IDs and mobile phones and said it was his duty to “douse flames” rather than “set the country afire”.
“I will appeal to the home minster, please consider. You are the country's home minster, not a BJP leader. It is not your job to set the country on fire. It is your job to douse flames in the country. I appeal to you with folded hands,” the Trinamool Congress chief said at a meeting.
‘‘Why is the home minister of the country openly saying Aadhaar card will not do? Then, why did you make the Aadhaar card, spend Rs 6,000 crore on it? Is the cat out of the bag now? I want clarification from you. As a citizen of the country it is my prerogative, my right to ask you,” she said.
She was referring to Shah's comment to a television channel that even PAN cards and voter IDs were not proof of citizenship. To this, she responded with characteristic sarcasm:
“Then how did you become the home minister? Your government, my government are all there because the voters gave us the mandate. “Will only badges given by the BJP have to be taken as proper (citizenship) documents,” she asked after leading a huge march from Howrah Maidan. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram hit back at the Prime Minister over his jibe at an election rally where he dared the Opposition to give Indian citizenship to every Pakistani citizen. “Why should we give citizenship to people who are already citizens of Pakistan? What is the meaning of such challenges to the Opposition?” he said.“It is gratifying that students and the young generation are liberal, secular, tolerant and exhibit humanism. Is the government challenging these values?” Chidambaram said in a follow-up tweet.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik slammed Shah and compared him with British General Reginald Dyer who ordered troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd in Jallianwala Bagh. “Amit Shah is firing at citizens of the country in the same way General Dyer fired at the people in Jallianwala Bagh. Amit Shah is no less than Dyer. The country is not run by guns and violence,” Malik said. The then Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer had ordered troops of the British Indian Army to fire indiscriminately into a crowd of unarmed civilians, which had assembled peacefully at the venue to condemn the arrest of two national leaders — Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew – resulting in a death toll which ranged in hundreds.