December 17, 2019
Attire does not determine one’s political view: Mamata Banerjee
Trinamool Chairperson Mamata Banerjee today led the second protest march in two days against NRC and CAB. Today’s march commenced from Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand and ended at Jadu Babu’s Bazar in Bhowanipore, going through Dhakuria, Golpark, Gariahat, Rashbehari Crossing and Hazra Crossing.
It started with women blowing conch shells. Before the start of the mega-rally, Mamata Banerjee asked all those present to take an oath: “We all are citizens. Democracy is our ideology. We will not let anyone leave Bangla. We will not be scared. We will not allow anyone to divide the country”.
Highlights of her speeches:
The rally should be peaceful. The protest should be peaceful.
The slogan of today’s rally is: We will never accept NRC, we will never accept CAB, we will never give in to threats.
Why do we need to prove our citizenship? They did not obey the Constitution while passing the Bill. They only took advantage of their brute majority in the Lok Sabha.
Bangla was the first to protest against the Bill. They did not even inform about the date for passing the Bill. So many MPs were not in the Lok Sabha. But we were prepared for the Rajya Sabha. All our MPs attended.
All of you please protest peacefully. We will take action against those who instigate violence
They used demonetisation to get votes. Now, what are they doing? The economy is devastated.
They are discriminating between people based on their attire. One’s attire does not determine one’s political view. We are doing this movement democratically.
They are asking for the birth certificates of our parents. Even they cannot produce that. Even I cannot produce that. There was no institutional delivery years ago, so there is no question of any birth certificate. Our government has introduced it in many places in Bangla.
The basic needs of any person comprise of roti, kapda and maakan. They cannot even assure that.
They have tortured the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University. They can do anything to show it in a negative light.
They can do conspiracy by sending their men to this rally too. They can burn property. But you do not step into their provocation.
Wear badges with ‘No CAB, No NRC’ written on them.
We have to stay together. We should stand shoulder to shoulder.
Their slogan is ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, but no one is with them. They are not doing any good to anyone.
Are not we the citizens? They are giving citizenship to outsiders. They are giving citizenship to 10,000 people and snatching the rights from 19 lakh. They have rejected the citizenship of 13 lakh Hindus.
The prices of onions and potatoes are unbelievable.
Banks are saying that we cannot withdraw our own money over Rs 1 lakh. You cannot even keep it in your homes because they may do demonetisation. They are also merging the nationalised banks.
There is no security. All of us are citizens. So why, after 73 years of independence, do we need to produce proof of citizenship? We will not let them do that.
Bangla will never accept NRC. Other states also declared that they would not implement the NRC.
We will do protest peacefully. There will be no destruction of property or road blockage. Both NRC and CAB should be rejected.
