No one will be pushed out of Bengal, assures Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is known to be one of the fiercest critics of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), on Friday reiterated that no such exercise will be held in Bengal. Speaking at the state Secretariat on Friday after her return from New Delhi, Banerjee said: "NRC will not come to Bengal. Nobody will be pushed out of this state. People who have been living in Bengal for so many years, they'll live here as they have been living here. I want to tell you all that just have faith in me. If they (BJP) want to touch you, they would have to get past Mamata Banerjee first."

Banerjee came back from New Delhi on Friday afternoon where she had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah. While talking to Shah, she had raised the issue of the NRC in Assam and expressed her annoyance over the dropping of the names of 19 lakh people from the final list.

She repeated her statement again and again, urging people "not to get swayed by the false campaigns of the BJP."

"People are talking about NRC in Bengal to gain political mileage but rest assured, there won't be any NRC in Bengal." She regretted that "some television channels are creating a hype about the NRC and this has triggered confusion among the masses." She added that because of this, two people have committed suicide in the past few days. "This is unfortunate and I urge people to clear all confusion regarding the NRC."

Banerjee also maintained that people should rectify the mistakes that might have appeared on their digital ration cards. "People are standing in long queues to rectify their mistakes in their digital ration cards but this has nothing to do with NRC."

The Trinamool Congress supremo stressed that the NRC was meant for Assam and she went to New Delhi to inform the Home ministry about the ordeal of the people of that state.

The final NRC, a list of Assam's residents and published on August 31, excluded the names of 19 lakh people.

"I doubt whether it will at all be implemented anywhere else in the country. Like us, Bihar has already said they will not implement it," she said.

Asserting that she was, is and will be there to care for the people, the Chief Minister said she will not allow the implementation of the NRC in the state.

Speaking about Assam NRC, she added: "It was done by the Congress government and please do not confuse the NRC in Assam and the fresh NRC in Bengal." She said that youngsters should go and include their names in the electoral roll as this is very important.

She further said: "You have the EPIC card or driving license or the ration card or passport or electric bills or the deed of the land. Any of these can prove your identity. Those who are residents of Bengal for generations will continue to live here," she said and added: "If they ask for the birth certificate of my mother is it possible for me to show the document which I do not have?"

It may be recalled that Banerjee was the first to raise her voice when the draft list of NRC in Assam was published in February. A team of TMC party leaders including Firhad Hakim, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Mamatabala Thakur and Mohua Moitra had visited Assam to meet those whose names had been dropped. But they were not allowed to move out of the airport in Guwahati.