Trinamool Congress to intensify movement against CAA, NRC

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress is going to up the ante against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in February with party supremo Mamata Banerjee addressing three public meetings.

The date and time are yet to be fixed but three meetings will be organised in Bongaon sub-division, Kalyani- Gayeshpur area while the third one will be held in Ranaghat sub-division, said Partha Chatterjee, secretary general of the party, on Friday.

Banerjee held a meeting with all the district presidents and observers at Trinamool Bhavan to finalise the party's next course of action in February.

Rallies and meetings will be held in all the blocks on February 1 and 2 respectively. Party leaders and workers will hold a meeting to condemn the attack on its workers in Behala on February 1. Several party workers have been assaulted by BJP supporters in Behala and the condition of two of them is stated to be critical. "We will protest against the BJP's hooliganism and the politics of violence," Chatterjee said.

On February 5, party workers will form a human chain between 2 pm and 3 pm, followed by a poster rally against the NRC and CAA in all blocks on February 6 along with hosting street corners.

On February 7, the Budget session of the Assembly will start with a speech by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. Party leaders and workers in the areas dominated by the SC and ST will launch a house-to-house campaign on February 8 and 9 respectively. On February 10 to 13, the leaders and workers will visit every household at the booth level to build contacts with people. The primary duty of the leaders during this campaign will be to make people aware of the danger of CAA and NRC and how the BJP is trying to divide the social fabric by introducing the draconian laws.

It may be recalled that it was Banerjee who held four rallies in Kolkata to protest against the CAA and NRC. She also held rallies in Purulia, Siliguri and Darjeeling. She was the first leader to demand the withdrawal of these laws. During her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 11, she had requested him to withdraw the citizenship law as it would affect the social fabric of India.

In a unique move, the TMC chief is all set to take up the brush on January 28 to protest against the draconian laws, painter Shuvaprasanna who is organising an event regarding this said on Friday.

The programme will take place at the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road, where Banerjee will wield the brush along with several other renowned artists to depict the problems of the contentious CAA and NRC, he said.

The theme of the programme is 'No CAA-No NRC'. It has been planned by Banerjee, Shuvaprasanna said.

"Around 40 painters along with Banerjee will try to depict the protests across the country, the pain of the people who are in detention centres in Assam due to the NRC. It will be a different form of protest," he added.