Shah misleading Matuas on citizenship issue: Abhishek Banerjee

Claiming that itwould take 10 years to complete the COVID-19 vaccinationprocess in the country, senior Trinamool Congress leaderAbhishek Banerjee on Saturday accused Union Home Minister AmitShah of misleading members of the Matua community on providingcitizenship to them.

Shah attacked the Mamata Banerjee government foropposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at publicmeetings in West Bengal on Friday, and asserted that thecontentious citizenship law would be enforced after thecompletion of the coronavirus inoculation programme.

Referring to TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi's resignationfrom Rajya Sabha on Friday months before the assembly polls,Abhishek Banerjee who is the youth wing president of the partyand a Lok Sabha MP, said, ''Trivedi said he was feelingsuffocated. Let him go and get admitted to the BJP's ICU.

''Shah said that the CAA will be implemented once theCOVID vaccination work is completed in the country. It willtake 10 years to complete the vaccination process in theentire country. He is misleading the Matuas, Banerjee saidwhile addressing a public meeting at Kulpi in South 24Parganas district.

Matuas, originally from East Pakistan, are weakersection of Hindus who migrated to India during the Partitionand after the creation of Bangladesh. Many of them have beenaccorded Indian citizenship but a sizeable section of thepopulation has not got it.

The Matua community, with an estimated population ofthree million in the state, can tilt the scales in favour of apolitical party in at least four Lok Sabha seats more than 30assembly seats in Nadia, and North and South 24 Parganasdistricts. It once stood behind the TMC but had supported theBJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Now, both the BJP and the TMC are wooing the Matuapeople ahead of the assembly election due in April-May.

On Shah's statement that the TMC will be uprooted fromWest Bengal in the assembly polls, he said that the TMC is nota cutout which one can uproot. ''It is a party of grassroots.

The more you cut it, the more it will grow.'' Claiming that the only poll plank of the BJP is 'JaiShri Ram' and it has no development agenda, the TMC leaderalleged that the saffron party does not know to give respectto women.

''They say Jai Shri Ram and not Jai Siya Ram. This isbecause they don't know to give respect to women'', the nephewof Mamata Banerjee said.

'Jai Siya Ram' means 'glory to Sita and Lord Ram'while 'Jai Shri Ram' denotes 'hail Lord Ram'.

''See the way the BJP showed disrespect to MamataBanerjee at the birth anniversary celebrations of NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata,''he said.

Mamata Banerjee, state chief minister and the TMCsupremo, on January 23 refused to speak at the event attendedby Prime Minister Narendra Modi after ''Jai Shri Ram'' sloganswere raised by a section of the audience just before she wasto start her address.

The Diamond Harbour MP also alleged that women aretortured in BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

Abhishek Banerjee claimed that the TMC will get morethan 250 seats in the assembly polls while the saffron partywill find it difficult to cross the double-digit mark.

Countering the BJP's claim of coming to power in thestate by winning over 200 seats in the election to the 294-member assembly, he said, ''West Bengal will elect MamataBanerjee as the chief minister for the third time.'' The saffron party's clamour for a double-enginegovernment (same party rule in the Centre as well as state) inWest Bengal will fall flat before the single-engine power ofMamata Banerjee, he said adding that the TMC will be in powerfor 50 years.

He claimed that BJP leaders coming from north Indiaare a ''bunch of outsiders'' who are not aware of the culture ofBengal, and spreading fake news to confuse people.

The TMC MP alleged that the BJP is trying to imposenorth Indian culture on West Bengal.

''Let me say our chief minister Mamata Banerjee willstand there like Maa Durga to fight against the BJP which hasweapons like CBI and ED'', he said.

Banerjee claimed that the saffron party is trying toinfluence farmers of the state by promising to provide Rs18,000 in their accounts, if elected to power, but ''Bengalwill never sell its spine to the BJP''.

The BJP has been saying that if voted to power in thestate, it will ensure that each farmer of the state gets Rs18,000 in arrears under the PM-KISAN scheme.

''The BJP should first think of Gujarat, UP and otherstates. No need to worry about Bengal. Outsiders will not ruleBengal,'' the TMC leader said.

Later, Banerjee conducted a roadshow from Kamalgazi toSonarpur in South 24 Parganas, a stretch of around 4kilometres, atop a blue coloured bus named 'Didir doot' (agentof Didi).

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)