‘Leave no Indians out of NRC list’

WEST BENGAL’S LEFT FRONT UP IN ARMS, TMC DECRIES DETENTION OF LEADERS

West Bengal’s Left Front leaders yesterday demanded that no Indian citizen should be left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and accused the BJP and Trinamool Congress of trying to communally polarise people on the issue.

“We want all the Indians to be registered in the NRC list. Not a single person should be left out. All the Indian citizens among the four million persons left out of the draft NRC in Assam should be immediately registered,” West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said.

Accusing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of opposing the NRC to gain political mileage and promote communal polarisation, Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Surjya Kanta Misra said that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress were on the same page on the citizens’ list in the past.

“Banerjee brought forth this idea of NRC to West Bengal. We all know her mindset regarding the Bangladesh refugees since 2005. Now she is opposing it (NRC) to promote communal polarisation so that people think that the Trinamool and the BJP are fighting. But actually, their stand on this issue is the same,” Misra alleged.

He said the BJP and its allies would not have been able to get a foothold in West Bengal without Banerjee’s support.

“The BJP has been trying to do this for a long time. I can recall that they were attempting this even 40 years ago. But they will not get any foothold in West Bengal without the support of this Chief Minister,” he added.

‘Black Day’

West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress yesterday observed a ‘Black Day’ in the city and its suburbs to protest against the detention of its party leaders and MPs at the Silchar airport in Assam.

A Trinamool delegation comprising six MPs, an MLA and a state minister went to Assam on Thursday to study the situation after the draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released but was detained and allegedly manhandled by the police.

Condemning the incident, Trinamool Congress activists marched on the streets in Kolkata and Howrah wearing black badges and carrying black flags.