December 24, 2019
BJP trying to divide the country: Mamata Banerjee
A mega rally was held in Kolkata today against the unconstitutional Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). Mamata Banerjee led the protest march.
The rally began at 1 PM near the ancestral home of Swami Vivekananda. It crisscrossed across central Kolkata and finally ended near Gandhi Bhavan at Beleghata.
Speaking on the occasion, at Bidhan Sarani and Beleghata, Didi said that BJP was trying to divide the country and that the people of Jharkhand have given them a fitting reply.
Highlights of her speech:
People of all religions have joined this movement. People from different professions, along with students are fighting for democracy across the country.
BJP wants to make this a Hindu-Muslim issue. But we are fighting for all of India:
This is not any religion-based movement. This is for our rights, for democracy.
The Union home minister is saying NRC will be carried out but the prime minister says there is no such proposal; who is speaking the truth?
People of Jharkhand have given them a fitting reply. The arrogance of BJP has been quashed.
They are misleading the Matua on citizenship. They are already citizens. Why will they have to stand in queues again for citizenship?
We set up the Matua Development Board. We took care of Boro Maa for 30 years. We have established a university named after Harichand-Guruchand Thakur.
They have killed many people in Uttar Pradesh. We had sent a team to Uttar Pradesh. Dinesh Trivedi, Md Nadimul Haque, Abir Biswas and Pratima Mandal were in that team. They did not let them exit the airport. BJP leaders are regularly coming here and saying negative things about us. But we did not stop them. This is democracy.
UP, Bangalore, Delhi are burning. They control police there. Why don’t they stop them? We won’t allow that to happen here.
They have renovated some historic sites in other States. Why did they leave out Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral home?
We constructed the Dakshineswar Skywalk. They did not give a single penny.
We are renovating other holy places in the State. Now we are constructing a skywalk at Kalighat.
We respect all religions. The country is for people belonging to all religions. They are trying to divide the country. We will not allow them to do that.
We will keep fighting for democracy, for people’s rights. Our peaceful protests will continue.
After 73 years of independence why do people have to stand in queues to prove their citizenship? We all are citizens. We will not stand in queues. We are not their servants.
The country will decide the fate of BJP. All are citizens. We are not going anywhere.
Bangla will never implement NRC or CAA. There is no detention camp in Bangla. They are spreading fake news.
Earlier, they said that Aadhaar card will be the primary identification for all. They spent Rs 6,000 crore for this. Now they are saying Aadhaar is not proof citizenship. Then why waste so much money?
They are saying they can identify agitators from their attire. Can’t you identify them from their face or their language?
They are questioning me about these rallies. I challenge them. Please walk with the people instead of using cars.
