West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the Bharatiya Janata Party is raising CAA again for votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Mamata, who has been strongly opposing the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, said her government has given permanent addresses to all colonies in the state. “They (BJP) have again started shouting CAA, CAA for the sake of votes. We have fought against the NRC. Rajbanshis are citizens of India," ANI reported.
Addressing at an event in Cooch Behar, Banerjee said, “All of you are citizens. We have given permanent addresses to all colonies. They get ration, go to school, get scholarships, get benefits under Kisan Bandhu, Shikhashree, Oikoshree and Laxmir Bhandar schemes. How could they get these benefits if they had not been citizens? Had they been able to cast votes if they were not citizens?" ANI reported.
Union Minister of State Shantanu Thakur triggered a furore on Sunday by saying the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act will be implemented within seven days across the country. During a public rally in West Bengal on Sunday, Thakur said, “Ram Mandir has been inaugurated (in Ayodhya), and within the next seven days, the CAA - Citizenship (Amendment) Act - will be implemented across the country. This is my guarantee. Not just in West Bengal, the CAA would be implemented in every state of India within a week,"
Mamata also accused the BJP of using central investigation agencies to harass the opposition.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
-with PTI inputs.
