A day after the Centre decided to grant Indian citizenship to minorities, mostly from Pakistan, who have migrated to India and are currently living in two districts of Gujarat under the Citizenship Act, 1955, and not the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said the ruling party in West Bengal will never allow the CAA to come into force in the state.
Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The BJP will not be able to roll out the CAA in the country. Suvendu Adhikari (Leader of Opposition in state Assembly) is making tall claims ahead of the 2023 panchayat polls as part of their effort to polarise the society.”
Both the Congress and the CPI(M) also endorsed the TMC’s stand on the issue.
State Congress president and Berhampur MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also said the BJP is making “empty noises about the CAA implementation”. “The Congress stands for integration and harmony, not dividing the society along religious lines,” he added.
CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said, “We will not allow the CAA to be implemented in the country. The BJP cannot impose any such decision without any consensus. None of the secular parties in the country will allow this to happen.”
Earlier in the day, BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed that the process of CAA implementation has started in the country and Bengal will not be left out of it. The Nandigram MLA said, “Bengal cannot be left out of the CAA implementation process. The Matua community members and other backward castes like namasudras will get certain benefits soon. The CAA will also be rolled out in our state.”
The CAA, Adhikari said, has already been rolled out in two districts of Gujarat by the notification giving citizenship to certain minority groups who came from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan.
Union Minister of State for Shipping and Bangaon MP Shantanu Thakur said, “I can only say if the CAA is implemented, it will be of great help to members of backward castes including the Matua community.” Thakur belongs to the Matua community.
Welcoming the Union Home Ministry’s decision, BJP’s national vice-president and Lok Sabha MP Dilip Ghosh said, “These three parties have played a vital role in dividing the country. Innumerable people are still waiting for citizenship. All other parties have ignored their plea for long. But when the BJP is taking some positive steps, they are opposing it,” he added.
TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen called the Centre’s move a poll gimmick. “The Morbi bridge collapse has brought lot of embarrassment to the BJP since hundreds of people died in the tragedy. But that did not stop them from doing politics. They passed a bill on this two-and-a-half years ago but couldn’t frame law till date. Now before an election they are again back with the gimmick to create division in society,” Sen said.
Terming the Centre’s decision a “polarisation tactic”, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “It is not new for the BJP whose policy is polarisation. They tried a similar trick before the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections to polarise voters. “
