KOLKATA: Lashing out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, BJP working president J P Nadda said she was trying to snatch away refugees’ right to get citizenship by opposing the amended Citizenship Act.
“The Bengal chief minister never thinks of the country’s development. You always consider the country’s benefit a secondary issue. Your own interest has always been priority to you. The CM is just doing vote-bank politics by opposing the CAA,’’ said Nadda at a party rally in Kolkata at the end of a mega march in support of the CAA that started from Raja Subodh Mullick Square in central Kolkata and terminated at Shyambazar in the northern part of the city.
“Violence continued for 15 days in Bengal. You blamed the Centre for the violence...This is your state and you are the CM and home minister as well. You never condemned the violence. You are doing divisive politics by adopting an appeasement policy. You ‘appealed’ for not spreading violence. A chief minister does not appeal, he or she acts,” Nadda said.
“The CM is not worried about Dalits, which include Matuas. We are including them in the mainstream by giving them citizenship and you are opposing. You always do politics of appeasement,” he said.
Nadda criticised the Bengal CM for the violence during the stir.
Nadda, accompanied by senior BJP leaders, including West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh and national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, had taken out a march earlier in the day in support of the amended citizenship law.
The BJP leader also hit out at Mamata for opposing every central policy.
“You described the amendment to the UAPA as a draconian law. The amendment was made to deal with terrorists and you were against it,’” said Nadda.
The senior BJP leader claimed that "Muslims have flourished in our country, but Hindus have suffered tortured in Pakistan". Pakistan is among the three countries from where non- Muslim minorities would be granted citizenship, if they meet the criteria, according to the amended law.