West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit out at the BJP-led Government in Assam and the Centre for leaving out of names of 40 lakh people in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was published on July 30, 2018.
Banerjee said this while while addressing a public programme at Cooch Behar in West Bengal.
She also accused the BJP of trying to drive out 40 lakh people including Bengalis from Assam.
Also read: 25 lakh Hindus among 40 lakh left out of Assam NRC: Mamata Banerjee
A report published on NDTV quoted Banerjee as saying: “In Assam, they (BJP) are trying to drive out 40 lakh people, including Bengalis, by omitting their names from the NRC draft.”
Referring to incidents of suicide in several parts of Assam due to non-inclusion of names in the final draft NRC, Banerjee said: “There had been reports of suicides by people who found their names missing from the draft. I wonder what will their counterpart (BJP Bengal unit) here will have to say about this.”
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It has also been reported that while drawing parallels between the NRC exercise in Assam and exodus of Bihari migrants from Gujarat, Banerjee said both the BJP-ruled States are trying to divide people on the basis of caste, creed, race and religion.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also claimed: “While they are driving away Bengalis in Assam, they are also ousting Biharis from Gujarat.The Constitution of our country teaches us to treat everybody equally. We cannot differentiate between people on the basis of caste, creed and religion.”
It may be mentioned that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee drew flak for her remark on the NRC update process, which is being done under the direct monitoring of the Supreme Court.
In January, Banerjee called the National Register of Citizens (NRC) update exercise in Assam a conspiracy to expel Bengalis out of Assam and compared the exercise with the 1960s ethnic cleansing ‘Bongal Kheda’ movement,
Addressing a public rally at Amodpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal in the first week of January, the Trinamool Congress supremo warned that ethnic problems in Assam would invariably have effects in West Bengal.
A number of FIRs were also lodged against Banerjee for her remarks.