West Bengal: People join anti-CAA protests, Left & Cong criticise Mamata’s call for referendum 

The political landscape of West Bengal is moving towards a welcome change as more and more people are joining non-partisan mobilisations as the fractured Opposition is yet to come up with a united show of mass anger and anxieties following the BJP government’s successive attacks on the constitutional edifice of our secular democracy. Cutting across political ideologies and religious faiths, languages, generations and gender divide, thousands of concerned citizens marched together on December 19, Friday, against newly passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC); a two-pronged project of the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah regime to institutionalise religion-based citizenship in a step towards realising the Sangh Parivar’s dream of a Hindu Rashtra.

On the same day, Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee demanded a referendum on the CAA-NRC. She dared the Modi-Shah duo to ascertain public opinion on the CAA and upcoming NRC that the Union Home Minister has been thundering about. "Why wait for 2024, go for a referendum if you are so confident of people's support on your moves on citizenship? If you are not competent, ask the UN or its Human Rights Commission to hold it. No political party need not intervene in the process. If you are scared, don't play with fire," Mamata said at her party’s youth rally.

She reiterated her intent not to implement the CAA-NRC as well as suspension of state support to the National Population Register (NPR) exercise in Bengal till the Centre clears the air on its relation to the NRC. In the meantime, she urged people to remain united and watchful against Sangh Parivar’s ‘divisive designs’ to fan violence across the state.

The 17-party Left alliance, as well as state Congress too, have held separate rallies, urging people to join the Bharat bandh on January 8, 2020, to oppose the CAA-NRC as well as the anti-worker and anti-farmer policies of the BJP government. Mamata has opposed this bandh so far. The Left and the Congress both have criticised Mamata for her call for referendum under the auspices of UN as an ‘ill-thought and loose-cannon utterance’ since it would help BJP to accuse the opposition of ‘internationalising the domestic issue’. They also demanded that Mamata should come clear on her initial support to NPR and construction of detention camps a la Assam. But the state has denied any hanky-panky and said that the camps are meant for other purposes.