KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she told Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rethink on the issue of amended Citizenship Act and urged him to withdraw CAA, NRC and NPR. Modi told her to come to New Delhi and discuss the matter, she told reporters after a meeting with the PM at Raj Bhawan.
Just after the meeting, Banerjee went straight to TMC students’ wing sit-in demonstration in the city against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), where she reiterated her stand that the new Citizenship law would never be implemented in Bengal.
Banerjee termed her meeting with PM Modi as a “courtsey visit” and said she has raised issues regarding the due financial assistance that the state is yet to receive from the Centre.
“It was a courtsey meeting. I told him about Rs 28,000 crore that the state is yet to receive from the Centre. Including Rs 7000 crore, we are supposed to get for the cyclone Fani. I acquainted him that we are against CAA, NPR and NRC. I also told him that protest is going on across the country against CAA, NRC and NPR. I told him that there should not be any discrimination among masses and no citizens should be left out or tortured. I asked him that the Centre should rethink on the issues and withdraw CAA,” she said.
When asked what PM Modi said in reply, the TMC supremo said, “regarding the matter related to states, he said he will look into the documents and about these issues (CAA, NRC and NPR), he said he has come for a few government programmes. So if there is an opportunity he would speak on the subjects in New Delhi.”
The meeting assumes significance as the new citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state. Banerjee’s TMC is opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail and the BJP is pressing for its implementation.
The meeting between the two leaders comes just two days after Banerjee had on Thursday said in the state Assembly that she would boycott an opposition meeting called by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on January 13 over the JNU violence, the CAA and other “anti-people” policies of the Centre. (PTI)
