Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today led a protest march against CAA, NRC and NPR in Darjeeling. This is the latest of several such protests led by her. After the march, she addressed a large gathering, attended also by those who participated in the march.
Highlights of her speech:
I am assuring all the communities in the Hills there there’s nothing to be scared of regarding NRC, NPR and CAA.
We all are citizens. We live together. We may have different languages, but we are all Indians.
Why did you remove one lakh Gorkha names from the Assam NRC list? We will fight for it together. Why do we have to prove our citizenship even after 73 years of independence?
We have voted for all Prime Ministers including Modi. We are citizens. We have the right to vote.
The Home Minister is giving big talk. Only our State has postponed NPR.
They are asking for birth certificates of our parents. None of us have those. Now they are saying that those certificates are not mandatory. Then why did you keep that point in the NPR form?
They will make you foreigners for a few years. Then they will grab your properties and jobs.
Why did you not implement this in Tripura? Because that is a BJP-ruled State. They are not talking about jobs. But they are selling off BSNL, Ordnance factories, Air India etc.
They are diverting attention from the pathetic economic condition of the country.
They are calling us Pakistanis if we raise our voices. Why should we be Pakistanis? We are all Hindustanis.
They have snatched blankets from the women protesting in Lucknow in this cold.
When I saw that they are snatching away the rights of the people of Darjeeling, I came here immediately. They are saying you will get citizenship online. Everything is a lie.
You all are voters, involved in business or service-holders. Doing jobs is your right. No one can snatch them away.
We are with you. Continue this movement until they withdraw NRC and CAA.
This is the question of our right, respect and land. We won’t let them drive away a single person.
They have killed many people. They want to keep only BJP people in the country and drive away all good people.
If anyone asks for any document, don’t show them. Only enlist your name in the Voters’ List.
We won’t let them build a single detention camp in Bengal.