Amit Shah and Mamata Banerjee
Launching a scathing attack on BJP over the issue of National Ragistrar of Citizens (NRC) draft, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress President Mamata Banerjee said that the whole exercise was done with a 'political motive' to divide people and warned that it would lead to a bloodbath and civil war in the country.
Attacking BJP, Mamata Banerjee said that the saffron party is trying to divide the country and added that this will not be tolerated.
"The NRC is being done with a political motive. We will not let this happen. They (BJP) are trying to divide the people. The situation cannot be tolerated. There will be a civil war, bloodbath in the country," Banerjee said while addressing a conclave in New Delhi.
Banerjee underscored that India-Pakistan-Bangladesh were one nation before partition. She said who so ever came from Bangladesh to India till March 1971 is an Indian citizen.
"Only to win polls people can't be victimised. Don't you think people whose name isn't in the list will lose a part of their identity?" she asked.
Mamata also hit out at Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal-led government, saying people who recently voted for the incumbent government in the state and at the Centre, have been declared as refugees in their own country.
"What is going on in Assam, the NRC problem? It is not only the Bengalis, it is the minorities, it is Hindus, it is Bengalis, it is Biharis," she said.
"I don't want to see my motherland with hope, I don't want to see my motherland divided. We will not allow this to happen in Bengal because we are there. Today these people cannot even vote," she added.
Continuing her tirade against the BJP, the West Bengal Chief Minister said that she is shocked that the former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed's family members' names have not been included in the NRC final draft.
"I am surprised to see that the names of our former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed's family members are not on the NRC Assam list. What else can I say? There are so many people whose names are not there," she said.
Meanwhile, condemning Banerjee for her warning that there could be civil war and bloodbath, saying the country was divided once in the name of civil war.
"She should clarify what kind of civil war she is talking about," he said.
Asked about a demand of West Bengal BJP leaders for an NRC in the state, Shah said the NRC is presently confined to Assam and the party will take a stand on such issues at an appropriate time.
The massive Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals living in Assam excluded over 40 lakh people from the final draft list.
The issue rocked both house of Parliament after which Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to the opposition not to politicise the "sensitive" matter as the list has been published on the directives of the Supreme Court and the Centre has "no role" in it.
He asserted that no "coercive" action will be taken against those whose names were excluded from the NRC draft list.
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