Days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made the announcement, a resolution was tabled and passed in the State Assembly around 2:00 pm against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The resolution appeals the BJP-led central government to repeal the citizenship law and also to stall the National Register of Citizenship(NRC) and National Population Register(NPR).
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee who introduced the resolution in the Assembly had said a few days ago that it was submitted to the speaker on January 20th and as scheduled was tabled today.
Mamata spoke within the Assembly once the resolution was passed. “You ask why I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi? It is a protocol. The Congress and Left are National parties, but why are they not protesting in Delhi? We were the only state to stay away from the NPR meet. There is a difference between census and NPR. Suddenly some amendments were made that made it clear that NPR and census are same,” said Mamata.
Mamata has been vocal against NRC when it was introduced in Assam after lakhs of Bengali speaking people were left out of the final list. She stepped up her fight as her party the Trinamool Congress (TMC) held protests in Kolkata and Delhi along with other nation-wide protests by political parties, students and people at large.
Days ago, Mamata appealed to Chief Ministers of North Eastern states to pass resolutions in against the law and well. She had even given an open invitation to hold talks on the issues in Kolkata when it was convenient for the Chief Ministers concerned.
Left leader Sujan Chakraborty has hit out at the West Bengal government asking why they waited for a signal from Delhi. He said, “When we had asked for the bill to oppose CAA, why was TMC silent? Why did they say no to a discussion on CAA?”
West Bengal joins the list of other states like Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan which have passed resolutions in their Assemblies against the amended citizenship law. The West Bengal Assembly had passed a resolution against NRC in September 2019.
