NEW DELHI: A police complaint has been filed against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making the alleged provocative remarks regarding the Assam National Register of Citizens issue.
According to PTI, the case against the Trinamool Congress chief has been filed with police in Assam's North Lakhimpur by the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha activists in connection with her alleged provocative remarks on the NRC.
The TMC leader had on Tuesday warned that the exclusion of 40 lakh people from the NRC in Assam would lead to a “civil war”.
Speaking at a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India conclave on ‘Love Your Neighbour’, Banerjee said, “You cannot just drive away people who have been staying here for 100, 200, 30 years… I am shocked to see how Indians became foreigners… shocked to see that even relatives of former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed have not made it to the NRC.”
The BJP Yuva Morcha activists then approached the Naharkatia police station in Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district and filed a complaint against Banerjee in this regard.
Later, BJP president Amit Shah too asked the Trinamool Congress chief to clarify her remarks and accused her of indulging in vote bank politics.
However, sharpening her attack on the ruling BJP at the Centre, the West Bengal leader on Wednesday accused the saffron party of playing vote-bank politics, while also warning that the issue will "destroy" India's relationship with Bangladesh.
She said only one percent of the 40 lakh residents, whose names are missing from the draft NRC, could be infiltrators, but people are being "harassed" in the name of infiltrators.
Banerjee said that she has appealed to all opposition parties to send their delegation to Assam.
The TMC chief said that she has also urged former BJP leader Yashwant Sinha to visit the state.
She claimed that India has very good relations with Bangladesh, but the NRC issue threatens to spoil that.
"The NRC will destroy relationship between India and Bangladesh. Out of 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list of NRC, only one per cent could be illegal infiltrators. But the BJP is trying to show that all those not included (in NRC) are infiltrators," she told reporters at the Parliament.
Mamata had on Tuesday alleged that the NRC exercise in Assam was done with a "political motive" to divide people and warned that it would lead to bloodbath and a civil war in the country.
"Bangladesh is not a terrorist country. After Independence, many people from Pakistan came to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab. From Bangladesh too, people came to Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar and many other states. They are not infiltrators or terrorists. Is it a crime that Bangladesh and we (West Bengal) share the same mother tongue? They (the Centre) think, anybody who speaks Bangla is a Bangladeshi" she said.
Her comments come in the backdrop of Assam government publishing the draft NRC on July 30.
The draft excludes 40 lakh people from the list.
(With Agency inputs)
