Kolkata saw mixed reactions on the passage of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill with celebrations, protests, rallies and counter rallies being organised on the streets of the city and also several other parts of West Bengal, a day after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha, on Thursday.

Earlier, Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had assured that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and CAB will not be allowed in Bengal as long as the Trinamul Congress is in power, on December 10. She said NRC and CAB are both two sides of the same coin. Miss Banerjee was speaking at a time when the CAB was being placed in the Lok Sabha for discussion and it was being passed.

While the Congress and a number of civil rights groups railed against the legislation, the BJP workers broke into celebrations outside their state headquarters on Muralidhar Sen Lane.

There were tense moments outside the office as a rally of the Congress workers protesting against the CAB passed the road while the celebrations were on there.

The two sides shouted slogans, threw sticks and water bottles at each other, but the police controlled the situation by creating a barricade between the workers of the two parties.

The police had some nerve-racking time after a few hours in the area when some students of Presidency University tried to march to the BJP office with copies of Constitution in their hands.

The police, however, stepped in and stopped them. The students said they wanted to give the constitution to the BJP leadership to make them understand they were flouting it by passing “divisive bills like the CAB”.

A number of civil rights groups like Association for Protection of Democratic Rights and Banglar Sanskriti Mancha organised protests in various pockets of the state.

A torch rally was also organised by a civil rights group at South Kolkata’s Park Circus against the Bill.

According to the Act, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

President Ram Nath Kovind, in a late Thursday night order, gave his assent to The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, letting it become an Act allowing Indian citizenship to six non-Muslim minority migrants facing religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

As per Gazette of India, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 of “Parliament received the assent of the President on December 12, 2019, and hereby published for general information”.