The Trinamool Congress is all set to fight its battle on the streets against the National Register for Citizens (NRC). Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has directed her district-level party leaders to meet the people and convince them about the BJP’s “malafide intention” of invoking an Assam-like NRC in Bengal too.
The TMC leaders have been asked to begin their district-wise campaign on September 7 and 8. The campaign will culminate in a massive protest rally on September 12.
Apart from the Bengali speaking people, the TMC will also take up the cause of about one lakh Gorkhas who have been excluded from the NRC.
Banerjee’s pro-Bengali, pro-Muslim, pro-Gorkha move is seen as a counter-strategy against BJP’s Hidutva agenda in Bengal.
The TMC is likely to club the cause of 11 lakh Bengalis, 4.5 lakh Muslims and 1.5 lakh Gorkhas who have been excluded from the NRC. Names of about 19.6 lakh people have been struck out of the NRC in Assam.
Reacting to BJP president Dilip Ghosh’s avowal that his party would press for NRC in Bengal, Banerjee said “let them touch Bengal and then see what happens.” Incidentally the TMC which was seen losing much of its support base in Darjeeling hills in this year’s general elections have suddenly found a cause to get the Hill Gorkhas to rally around her party.
“We will launch a massive movement in support of the Gorkha population whose names have been dropped in Assam,” Benoy Tamang leader of the pro-TMC faction of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha said on Tuesday wondering what Raju Bishta the Darjeding BJP MP who was a strong supporter of NRC would say after seeing the condition of the left out Gorkha population in Assam.
In Kolkata TMC leaders said they had already started reaching out to the people with Banerjee’s message on NRC. “The BJP is trying to play with religious sentiments of the Hindus against the Muslims. But if at all the BJP Government of Assam was trying to find out the infiltrators then why have they thrown out 11 lakh Bengalis. This proves their anti-Bengali feeling,” said a TMC leader and a Minister from Kolkata adding “it will be the biggest blunder of the Bengalis if they bring the BJP to power in Bengal because … a blunder far bigger than that of bringing the Marxists to power in 1977.”
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development BJP MP and Barrackpore strongman Arjun Singh on Tuesday threatened to file an FIR against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for hatching plans to murder him.
Singh injured his head during a BJP-TMC clash and a subsequent police lathicharge on Saturday noon. He subsequently accused Barrackpore police commissioner Manoj Verma of a “direct assault on me.” He said “the CP hit me on my head with the butt of his revolver with a clear intention to kill me. I am sure there was a plan of the Chief Minister behind this as police do not walk a step without her wishes.”
