CAA a ploy to give citizenship to foreigners who funded BJP: Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the saffron camp over the amended Citizenship Act saying it is a part of a bigger conspiracy and a "ploy" to take away citizenship from those who hold it legally and give it to foreigners who have funded the BJP.

"Is this Act a ploy to take away the citizenship of those legal citizens and giving it to those foreigners who have funded the BJP? This is the game plan of BJP," she said speaking from the dharna manch of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, her party's student wing against the CAA, here.

The TMC supremo criticised BJP for not allowing her party's delegation to enter Uttar Pradesh during anti-CAA protests, Guhawati during anti-NRC protests and Delhi's JNU campus and said she "even extends courtesy to enemies".

"This is Bengal's culture to extend courtesies to those who come to the state. We know how to respect our guests, we show courtesy even to our enemies. But you people (BJP) didn't allow our party leaders to enter Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Guhawati and JNU," she said seemingly referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Kolkata and the turning away of TMC delegations from various places.

She had met Modi at the Raj Bhavan during his visit and was seen sharing the stage with him at a function.

Coming down heavily on Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister said: "The laws relating to CAA have not been prepared and the UP Chief Minister has identified 30,000 refugees. What is going on in this country I do not know."

Furthermore, apparently referring to the killing of Bengali labourers at Kulgam in Kashmir by terrorists in October 2019, the TMC chief also added that the people of other states face no threats and are safe in Bengal.

She went on to add that the problem of unemployment has reached an all-time high and the economic condition of India is going down from bad to worse. People are losing jobs and no industry is coming up. Without addressing these burning issues, the BJP is bringing in CAA and NRC for sheer harassment.

"All the 130 crore people living in India should be brought under the CAA. Everybody has some document or the other. While some have voter ID cards, others have a driving license, some have a deed of the house he is living in while some have birth certificates and so on. All these documents should be considered valid. If the EPIC is not valid then how could you come to power on the vote given by illegal immigrants," she questioned.

"Passport is a valid document and the BJP is not accepting it," she added.

Banerjee said one should give a very serious thought regarding the implementation of the NRC and CAA. "It may be that those who had brought the money from foreign countries during the Lok Sabha election in 2019 will be given citizenship. Nobody can question the exact amount which BJP got from these people. It could be that in order to accommodate these foreign nationals, the genuine Indians will be forced to sacrifice," she added.