West Bengal Assembly passes resolution against NRC upgrade

Shubhadeep Choudhury      
Tribune News Service 
Kolkata, September 6

The West Bengal Assembly today passed a resolution against conducting an exercise to upgrade the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. The three major parties in the Assembly — Trinamool Congress (TMC), Congress and the CPI(M) — supported the resolution despite their political differences.

The BJP, which has taken a stand on upgrading the NRC in West Bengal, opposed the motion moved under the Rules of  Business of West Bengal Assembly. 

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said an overwhelming number of people excluded from the final list of the NRC published in Assam on August 31 were Hindus. At least 11 lakh of the 19 lakh branded as foreigners in Assam were Bengali Hindus, Banerjee said, adding that the figure also included one lakh Gorkhas.

Banerjee said the BJP thrived on setting groups of people against each other. While Bengalis, Gorkhas and others were being branded as foreigners in Assam,  the BJP was trying to engineer a division between Bengalis and Rajbangshis in Cooch Behar and between Bengalis and Hindi-speaking people and between Hindus and Muslims in other parts of the state.

Banerjee said the BJP juggernaut in the country could be stopped only if there was a strong protest and asserted that Bengal was ready to lead such an agitation. The soil of Bengal has been awash with the blood of martyrs who laid down their lives for political ideals, the CM said.