West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday lashed out Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning whether Modi was the “ambassador of Pakistan” with a habit of glorifying and dragging in the neighbouring nation on every issue.

“There is one matter in my heart. I respect Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But I would like to put a question before him. When we live in such a large and the biggest democratic country, then why do you compare our country with Pakistan?” Mamata asked at a rally in West Bengal’s Siliguri.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was addressing a massive protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the northern Bengal town of Siliguri, about 550 km from Kolkata.

“India is a big country with a rich culture and heritage. Why does the PM regularly compare our nation with Pakistan? Are you the prime minister of India or the ambassador of Pakistan. Why do you refer to Pakistan in every issue?” she further questioned.

She added: “We are Indians and we will definitely discuss about our national issues.”

Mamata further requested the people to come forward and join in the fight with her “to save the democracy”.

Her attack on Modi came a day after the Prime Minister on Thursday slammed the Congress for opposing the CAA and dared the opposition party to protest against Pakistan for persecuting Hindus living as minorities in the neighbouring country.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been vehemently leading massive protests against the CAA and NRC on the streets of Kolkata.

The West Bengal BJP leadership had hoped that the new citizenship law would be its “political trump card” ahead of the 2021 assembly polls in the state. But an aggressive campaign against the CAA by the Trinamool Congress, other opposition parties, civil society groups, students and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration not to implement the CAA in the state, has put the saffron party on the backfoot.

Apart from launching statewide campaigns against the new legislation, Banerjee has participated in as many as six protest marches and three rallies in various parts of the state.

Mamata had on December 23 called for opposition unity by uniting all like-minded parties on a platform to protest against the “draconian” BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.

States of West Bengal, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Chhattisgarh have announced that they will not implement either the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Meanwhile, West Bengal and Kerala are the only two states which have stopped the National Population Register (NPR) procedures since they believe it is the first step for the contentious NRC.