Go for UN-monitored referendum on CAA, NRC: Mamata's challenge

Challenging the Modi government to go for a UN-monitored referendum over the amended Citizenship Act and the proposed nationwide NRC, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that the BJP will have to quit if it fails such a "mass vote". Adressing a rally at Rani Rashmoni Avenue here, the Trinamool Congress supremo alleged that the BJP was trying to brand the protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as a fight between Hindus and Muslims in the country.

"Just because BJP has got the majority doesn't mean they can do whatever they want. If the BJP has guts, it should go for a United Nations-monitored referendum on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act and the NRC," Banerjee said. "If the BJP looses this mass vote, then it should step down from the government," she added.

Banerjee claimed that she has received inputs that the BJP is allegedly buying skull caps for its cadres who are wearing them while vandalising properties to malign a particular community. Reiterating that the contentious law and the proposed country-wide NRC won't be allowed in West Bengal, Banerjee said the BJP was founded in 1980 and was asking for people's citizenship documents of 1970.

She said despite imposing prohibitory orders in various parts of the country to curtail protests, the saffron party won't succeed..