Union Home Minister Amit Shah accused West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee of “scaring” minorities over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and said the government would not stop until citizenship is granted to all refugees.
Addressing a rally at Shahid Minar Ground in the city, Shah said, “Earlier nothing was done to grant citizenship to refugees. When Mamata Banerjee was in the Opposition, she had herself taken up this issue, and had stalled Parliament. When she came to power, she started the politics of vote bank and appeasement. And when Modiji brought CAA, Congress, Communists, Mamata and others started opposing it. They are scaring minorities in this country by saying that this law will snatch the citizenship, especially of Muslim brothers and sisters. I have come to assure my minority brothers and sisters that CAA only provides citizenship and does not take it away. It won’t affect your citizenship. Mamata didi, you can’t stop us. We will not stop until we grant citizenship to all refugees.”
At the rally, Shah virtually kick-started the BJP’s campaign for the 2021 Assembly polls in the state, asserting that the party will win the state with two-thirds majority.
He also launched a state-wide campaign, ‘Ar Noi Annay (No More Injustice)’, to take on Banerjee’s outreach programme, ‘Didi ke Bolo’.
Earlier, BJP workers on their way to the rally were heard shouting slogans of “Goli maro…”
Targeting Banerjee, Shah continued, “You only care about infiltrators. Hindus who fled our neighbouring countries, who were raped and threatened and killed… should they not get citizenship? After CAA was passed in Parliament, there were protests in Bengal and trains and railway stations were burnt. I want to ask her whether Dalits have wronged her in any way? While protesting and opposing us, you’re also opposing the campaign of Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur (founders of the Matua sect). You’re opposing the promises of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.”
In an apparent reference to Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, Shah said no shahazada (prince) would become Chief Minister when the BJP comes to power in the state. “Only a son of the soil will become the next chief minister of this state,” he said.
TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee hit out at Shah, asking him to apologise for failing to save lives during the riots in Delhi. “Rather than coming and preaching #Bengal @AmitShah you should have explained and apologised for failing to save more than 50 innocent lives in #DelhiViolence right under your nose. Mr Shah, Bengal is better off without bigotry and hatred that BJP is trying to spread,” Banerjee said in a tweet.
Claiming that the BJP will come to power after the 2021 Assembly elections and turn the state into “Sonar Bangla (Golden Bengal)”, Shah said, “Before the Lok Sabha polls, Mamata didi used to say our candidates will lose their deposits. But for the first time we won 18 of the 42 seats in the state… In the coming Assembly polls also, the BJP will get an absolute majority…. a two-thirds majority and form the government… Give BJP five years and we will make the state ‘Sonar Bangla’,” he said.
Launching the party’s Aar Noi Anyay campaign, Shah said, “Mamata didi goes to every village and asks ‘Didi Ke Bolo (Talk to Didi)’ and people wonder what to tell her. Today I have come here to tell you, don’t sit quiet. Whenever she asks ‘Didi Ke Bolo,’ you say, ‘Aar Noi Anyay’, meaning we will not tolerate this injustice… This campaign is against atrocities on poor, against corruption, against syndicate, against appeasement politics, against infiltrators and to improve the law and order situation. You have to take everyone along with yourself and visit households across the state to say that we will not tolerate TMC’s injustice anymore.”
After the rally, Shah visited Kalighat and later held a meeting with the state BJP leadership. Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated the National Security Guard’s (NSG) 29 Special Composite Group complex in the Rajarhat area outside Kolkata.
The Congress and CPM workers took out rallies across Kolkata to protest against Shah’s visit to Kolkata and slammed him for the violence in Delhi. A scuffled ensued between policemen and protesters at Esplanade in Central Kolkata during one such rallies.
Attacking the BJP for the “Goli maro” slogans that party workers were heard chanting while on their way to Shah’s rally, Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Chowdhury said, “After spreading violence in Delhi, BJP is now trying to create the same situation in Bengal. Such slogans only reflect that. We all have to come together to resist them.