TMC Lawmaker Accuses BJP of Using CAA to Target Bengali Residents

TMC lawmaker Abhishek Banerjee said on Sunday that the CAA was part of the BJP's scheme to portray legitimate residents and Bengali Hindu migrants who had lived in West Bengal for decades as Bangladeshis.

The TMC national general secretary asserted during an election rally in Ranaghat, Nadia district, that someone who asks for citizenship under the CAA while already having citizenship will be labeled as Bangladeshi.

Another 'jumla' of the BJP is the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). You recall how many Hindu Bengalis from Assam were transferred to detention camps by the BJP administration under the guise of the National Register of Citizens. The Diamond Harbour MP stated during the event, "We are always on your side to fight against the BJP's game plan to take away your citizenship."

Banerjee issued a challenge to the BJP-led NDA government at the federal level, demanding that they provide citizenship to applicants under the CAA within a week of the application date.

"If you have a voter identity card, PAN, or ration card, do you still need to apply under the CAA? Under the CAA, do not seek for citizenship. Which BJP leader used the CAA portal to apply? At the event, he stated, "The answer is no."

During her oath-taking ceremony as a Rajya Sabha MP, Matua leader Mamata Bala Thakur said that the NDA government at the Centre was "anti-Matua community" and that she was not permitted to speak the names of her community's idols, Guru Chand Thakur and Hari Chand Thakur.

Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has accused the Narendra Modi administration of "withholding" cash from the rural employment program, so denying workers under the MGNREGA plan.

By guaranteeing at least 100 days of paid work in a fiscal year, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) seeks to improve the livelihood stability of households in the nation's rural areas.

"When the Centre adopted anti-Bengal measures that harmed the interests of the underprivileged, eighteen BJP MPs remained silent without speaking. While our MPs were punished for voicing public complaints, not one of them had contributed a single rupee to the state," he remarked.

Banerjee opined that the BJP's "one nation, one election theory" will deny people their right to vote in next elections.

He said that the "BJP was curbing the rights of Bengali Hindus to eat fish and other non-veg items in the name of religion and by imposing its diktat."