West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s hypocrisy has been exposed as she has said that she welcomes the Bangladeshi protestors while opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is aimed at protecting the rights of persecuted Hindus. This has raised questions about her Government’s position on immigration and minority rights
“I should not be speaking on the affairs of Bangladesh since that is a sovereign nation and whatever needs to be said on the issue is a subject matter of the Centre. But I can tell you this, if helpless people come knocking on the doors of Bengal, we will surely provide them shelter,” Banerjee said.
Speaking at the ‘Martyrs Day’ rally of the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee drew a comparison to the Bodo conflict in Assam, highlighting the precedent of allowing Assamese people to reside in the Alipurduars area of North Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee urged the people of West Bengal to maintain composure and avoid being provoked by the current situation in Bangladesh, advising, “We should exercise restraint and not walk into any provocation or excitement on the issue.”
The controversy surrounding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s policies in West Bengal has intensified amidst accusations that her Government refused to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and allegedly tried to deny citizenship to Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. Since 2020, she repeatedly led anti-CAA protests and coined slogans like ‘Caa Caa chi chi (CAA Shame Shame’, (a reference to CAA shorthand of Citizenship Amendment act). Additionally, in January 2020, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government passed a resolution against CAA in the state assembly. She was accused of fearmongering and provocating a large section of the society, particularly the Muslims, and spreading falsehoods against CAA. On many occasions, she lied about CAA, alleging that it would grant refugee status to citizens, strip them of their voting rights, and govt scheme benefits.
The BJP responded sharply to Mamata Banerjee’s statement offering shelter to those fleeing hardship in Bangladesh. The party criticised the move, accusing the I.N.D.I Alliance of orchestrating a nefarious scheme to relocate unauthorised migrants from Bangladesh to Jharkhand with the aim of influencing election outcomes.
Amit Malviya, the BJP co-incharge for West Bengal, raised doubts about Banerjee’s jurisdiction in extending shelter to foreign nationals. He highlighted that matters concerning immigration and citizenship fall strictly under the purview of the Union Government, asserting that “immigration and citizenship are exclusively in the Centre’s domain, and that states have no locus-standi in such matters.”
Mamata Banerjee on
Odd days – We will not allow Hindu refugees, who came to India to escape religious persecution, to apply for citizenship under CAA and get their legitimate rights. If they insist, we will ask illegal Rohingyas, who vote for the TMC, to burn trains, block roads… pic.twitter.com/cSMqrkCF4M
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) July 21, 2024
More than 150 people have lost their lives in the widespread clashes across Bangladesh. Discontent over Government job allocations has sparked unrest, prompting the nationwide imposition of a strict curfew with orders to “shoot-on-sight.”
On July 21, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh scaled back the controversial quota system for civil service job applicants, reducing its scope but stopping short of complete abolition. This decision follows the system’s reinstatement last month, which sparked the deadly civil unrest across the country.
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