Kolkata: Home Minister Amit Shah defended the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but made no mention of last week’s Delhi riots as he addressed a public rally in Kolkata Sunday. This was his first rally in the West Bengal capital since the passage of the controversial law last December.
The thrust of his Kolkata speech was the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, with Shah telling his audience at the Shaheed Minar ground that the BJP would form its first government in the eastern state next year.
“For the people of Bengal, Modi ji got absolute majority in 2019. We promise that we will form the government here in 2021 with at least a 2/3rd majority,” Shah said.
“We will free Bengal from extortion, syndicate raj and corruption. We will bring vikas (development) here,” he added, taking aim at the state’s current Trinamool Congress dispensation led by Mamata Banerjee.
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Brief reference to CAA
With the protests against the CAA, which seeks to ease Indian citizenship for non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, refusing to die down, Shah briefly touched upon the law in his nearly 30-minute-long speech.
“I want to reassure my brothers and sisters of the minority community living in West Bengal, nobody will touch you. You all are citizens of the country. Do not panic,” he said, adding that the Act won’t strip anyone of citizenship. “The Act is about giving citizenship to refugees.”
He accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a CAA critic, of launching “anti-refugee” protests. Citing the December 2019 anti-CAA protests in West Bengal, he said, “She allowed trains, stations, buses and public property to be burnt down as she always tries to shield the infiltrators.”
By opposing a law passed in Parliament, he added, Mamata Banerjee was not only disrespecting the founding fathers of the Constitution but also the likes of Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur (founders of Matua sect) and Panchannan Barma (a leader of Koch and Rajbanshi people), who represent large Hindu refugee communities.
“The refugees are being made to fear that they will have to produce documents… nothing of this sort will happen. Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains do not need any documents,” he said.
The law is supposed to be the trigger for ongoing violence in Meghalaya and last week’s Delhi riots, but Shah made no mention of the clashes in his speech.
Trinamool ‘rajkumar’ won’t become CM: Shah
Hitting out at Banerjee and her nephew, MP Abhishek Banerjee, Shah said the next chief minister of Bengal will be a “son of the soil”, an honest Bengali, and “never the rajkumar (prince) of the ruling Trinamool”.
“The next chief minister of Bengal will be a leader who will rise from the masses not the heir apparent of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” he added.
A programme to counter ‘Mamata’
In light of the upcoming local body elections to be held later this year and the 2021 assembly polls, Shah launched an outreach programme for the BJP, titled “Aar Noi Annay (no more injustice)”, which is aimed at countering Mamata’s somewhat-successful ‘Didi Ke Bolo (talk to Didi)’ helpline.
“Aar Noi Anyay is a campaign to change the government in Bengal,” Shah said, adding whenever the Trinamool Congress campaigns through “Didi ke Bolo”, BJP workers should champion “Aar Noi Annay”. He also announced a number that party supporters can call to join the campaign.
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