TMC students' wing continues anti-CAA demonstration with songs, poems

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress students' wing is continuing to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA with songs, poems and speeches at a sit-in demonstration on Rani Rashmoni Avenue in the heart of the city.

Their demonstration entered the fourth day on Monday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the TMC supremo, visited the sit-in venue on Saturday and is likely to pay another visit on Monday afternoon.

The protesters of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) were seen carrying posters and placards against the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

They demanded that the new citizenship law be revoked.

TMCP leaders said that their protest is also against the violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.

"NRC, CAA and NPR is not just discriminatory against Muslims but is also against the poor, the working-class people and the students. Why do we need to prove our citizenship after so many years of Independence?

"We want jobs for youths and food for the poor. The Centre should be bothered about these issues rather than keeping themselves busy deciding who is an Indian and who is not," a senior TMCP leader said while addressing the demonstration.

CPI(M)-affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI), however, mocked the TMCP for organising a sit-in against CAA "while Mamata Banerjee compromised the fight against the law by meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

"On one hand TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi by not participating in the opposition meeting and on the other, TMCP is staging a protest.

"This is nothing but a drama which has already been exposed before the masses," SFI state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya said.