The chief minister Mamata Banerjee today gave a clarion call to her party workers to launch a movement against the Centre’s much touted NRC and Citizenship Amendment Bill. She said that if no other states come forward, Bengal will launch a second war of independence against NRC. While addressing her party workers at a programme on Mayo Road, the chief minister asked her party workers to launch booth level campaign against NRC. She said that the NRC and the CAB are two sides of the same coin and the TMC will oppose it till the end.

Speaking at the annual Sanhati Dibas rally, she said the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB)were being taken up by the Centre to divert attention of the people from the economic slowdown. “If you give citizenship to all the communities, we will accept it. But if you discriminate on the basis of religion, we will oppose it and also fight against it,” the chief minister said. She said first they will introduce CAB and later they will advocate for NRC.

“ We will never allow NRC to be implemented in the state and today lets all take an oath to fight tooth and nail against NRC.’ Banerjee said, “the chief minister of Tripura is a BJP leader from Bangladesh so there will be no NRC in Tripura. In Assam, after implementing NRC, 19 lakh people are rendered as foreigners. So there will be no CAB in Assam. She appealed to the people of North Eastern states not to be misled by CAB. There is no difference between and NRC and CAB as they are two sides of the same coin. We will not allow the Centre to implement NRC or CAB in Bengal,’’ Miss Banerjee said that at least 30 people have committed suicide in the state due to panic over the NRC.

“If some leaders’ provocative speech results in such loss of life, that leader will have to take responsibility for the loss of life.’ Banerjee said in a secular country like India, citizenship can never be accorded on the basis of religion. But if citizenship is given to each and every refugee, irrespective of religion and community, Miss Banerjee said, she would support the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). Banerjee today claimed that both the NRC and the CAB were being used to divert attention of people from the ongoing economic slowdown in the country. She said since our first Prime MInister Jawaharlal Nehru to the present Prime Minister.

All Centre governments are elected by the citizens of India. If they are not citizens of India then the government elected by them is also illegal. Speaking on the occasion, Mamata Banerjee said, “We can never forget the riots of 1992. The riots ravaged the entire country. We had pledged back then that we will observe December 6 as Sanhati Dibas to foster communal harmony among people.” She added, “We have never supported politics of riots. We have a responsibility towards the people. We have the support of people from grassroots level.” She also said,

“We can never sacrifice our ideology at the altar of politics. Trinamul was formed on January 1, 1998. Till date, we have never taken any anti-people, anti-Constitution, anti-India action. We can sacrifice our lives, but not our ideals,’ she maintained.