Drop CAA, NRC; Bengal will spell your end, Mamata to BJP

Bankura (West Bengal), Feb. 11 (IANS): Demanding the BJP scrap CAA and drop plans for nationwide NRC after its Delhi Assembly poll rout, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the saffron party was now gradually becoming “a stateless entity” and her state will be the one to drive the last nail into its coffin next year.

Earlier, Banerjee rejoiced over the Aam Aadmi Party’s emphatic win in Delhi, calling it a triumph of democracy and saying the people did not want divisive politics.

Banerjee, who made a phone call to AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to congratulate him on his party’s resounding success, told the media that the BJP was losing every poll now.

Later, addressing a meeting in Bankura, she said she had come with great news. “The BJP has been defeated in Delhi. I called up Kejriwal and congratulated him profusely. We work together.”

Ridiculing the BJP, Banerjee said it took votes from the people during the Lok Sabha polls last year and was returning the favour by asking them to furnish the birthdates as also birth certificates of their parents.

“The BJP should now rollback CAA and drop plans for carrying out a nationwide NRC,” she said to wild applause from the audience.

Referring to the string of losses suffered by the BJP in assembly election of various states since late 2018, she said: “It is gradually becoming stateless. It is being vanquished everywhere. In the assembly polls in 2021, we will perform its last rites.”

“Money cannot save BJP,” she said, asking women to blow their conch-shell like bugles ahead of war.

“The ululation and the sound of the conch-shells of my mothers and sisters are more potent weapons than BJP’s money,” she said.

Banerjee recalled that there was a time when the BJP was disturbing the AAP government a lot. “We (many non-BJP regional parties) had then rushed to his side. Today, we are very happy that despite the bigotry and narrow-minded politics of hatred, it has turned out to be a victory of the people. The politics of hatred did not work this time.”

“It’s a victory of democracy. I congratulate the people of Delhi.”
The Trinamool Congress chief said though Delhi has a small area, the BJP-led Centre had used all its might to “capture the state”.

“Despite unleashing its might (with top leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Home Minister Amit Shah campaigning) and also its allies to capture the state anyhow, the BJP has lost,” she said.

Banerjee said the reason was people don’t like the BJP’s “despicable and divisive politics”. “People want basic amenities — jobs, food, clothing, shelter, development and peace. So politics should be for peace and development, and for the good of the country and its people,” she said.

Recapitulating the election results post the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee said while the Congress-Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party combine was running the government in Maharashtra, the BJP also lost Jharkhand.

“Last year, they were defeated in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In between, they somehow managed to win the parliamentary elections. But, after they won the second term at the Centre, they came out with all audacity and political vendetta. As a result, the country is burning,” she said.

In an apparent reference to the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Banerjee said the country had more important issues like unemployment, economy, development, industry and price hike.

She charged the BJP with using “so-called” NGOs and organisations to spread lies about CAA and NRC.

“In the name of so-called NGOs and so-called heretic organisations, they only spread garbage of lies, rumour, and are spending money as if through a hose pipe. And, they are spreading all such rumours and false propaganda between communities,” she said.