Mamata Banerjee to skip opposition's Anti-CAA meet
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her Trinamool Congress would boycott a joint meeting of opposition parties called by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday next in protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's controversial amended citizenship law and proposed NRC.
"I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on January 13 in New Delhi as I don't support the violence that the Left and the Congress unleashed in Bengal yesterday," Mamata said according to our New Delhi correspondent.
The Left and the Congress follows dual policy in Bengal and New Delhi, Mamata said in the state assembly in Kolkata, reflecting a split in the opposition camp in the fight against the Modi government on the issue of CAA/NRC, the correspondent added.
The CAA, termed "divisive" by critics, offers Indian citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who have taken shelter in India till 2014.
She was critical of the violence allegedly resorted to by the Left parties and the Congress during a 24-hour strike in West Bengal yesterday and said this was done to "malign" her government.
The Chief Minister accused the Left and the Congress of playing "dirty politics" and adopting "double standard" but said she would continue to fight alone against the citizenship law CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).
"Due to this politics of opposition in the state, in contradiction with their all-India stance, I don't want to be on the same page with all of you. I have decided not to attend the anti-CAA and NRC meeting on January 13," said Mamata speaking during a special session of the Bengal assembly.
She asked for forgiveness from other opposition leaders for not attending the Delhi meeting on January 13 because "it was me who had mooted the idea."
"But what happened yesterday in the state it is no more possible for me to attend the meeting anymore," she said.
Reacting to Mamata's decision not to attend the January 13 meeting, West Bengal Congress leader Abdul Mannan accused her of trying to please the BJP leadership.
"She is trying to please BJP leaders. She herself is pursuing double standards," Mannan alleged.
Comments