Kolkata, March 14 -- With the Union Home minister Amit Shah accusing the Bengal government and its Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of failing to stop infiltration at the state's borders, Trinamool Congress has rebutted saying it is the "failure" of Border Security Force (BSF) which works under the purview of the Union Home Ministry led by Shah.
On Thursday, Shah lashed out at Mamata Banerjee by accusing her of misleading people about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In his tirade against Banerjee, Shah accused the West Bengal government of failing to stop the alleged influx of infiltrators. He said that the day is not far when the BJP will come to power in Bengal and put an end to infiltration. "If you (Mamata) allow infiltration by doing appeasement politics and oppose the refugees from getting citizenship then people will not be with you," Shah accused.
He further said that Banerjee should instead focus on stopping infiltration in her state. "I openly challenge her to show me one section of this law (CAA) that takes away anyone's citizenship. She is creating fear. Mamata Banerjee should not stop us from doing this. She should instead stop infiltration in her state. Infiltration has completely stopped in Assam because BJP is in power there."
Refuting Shah's claim, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said: "Amit Shah has given same-side goal. Borders are protected by the Border Security Force which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs whose minister is Amit Shah. It is Shah who is responsible for ensuring no infiltration takes place. It is the duty of the central government." He added: "The entire mechanism of protecting borders comes under Shah's Home Ministry and yet he is claiming that infiltration is taking place. Whose failure is that then? Instead of stopping infiltration your ministry is implementing laws that divide people on the basis of religion. This is dangerous".
Further, he said: "We are saying that those citizens whose names are in the voter list, ones who have Aadhaar cards, are already citizens of the country. There were existing laws for citizenship. Why then bring about such a discriminatory law on the basis of religion? Don't see people as Hindu or Muslim. See people as human beings. This is simply vote-bank politics on the basis of religion."
Kunal demanded: "If any of the BJP's public representatives, including MPs, MLAs or any Panchayat members, decide to fill up the CAA form, declaring they are not citizens, then they have no right to contest elections in India. Their posts should be rejected. If you are not a citizen of India then how can you fight elections here?"
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.