Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday led a massive rally starting from the heart of the city against the Citizenship Act, as she dared the Centre to implement the new legislation in her state.
Hundreds of workers and supporters of her party marched along with her during the rally, which started from the BR Ambedkar statue on Red Road and ended at Jorasanko Thakurbari.
"As long as I am alive, we will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. They can dismiss our government if they want. We will not surrender," Banerjee said while addressing the rally.
"They will have to implement CAB and NRC in Bengal over my dead body. When we raised our voice against NRC, we were alone. Now, others are speaking out," she said.
She added that protests would continue till the Centre withdraws them and in the same breath, appealed to the masses to conduct the protests in a peaceful and democratic manner.
Before the rally began, the participants took a pledge which Banerjee read out: "We are all citizens. We are living in religious harmony. No one will be allowed to leave Bengal. We will live happily and peacefully. No NRC and CAB in Bengal. We will conduct movement peacefully."
Banerjee appealed to people not to take laws in their own hands and carry out movement in peaceful and democratic manner. "On Tuesday, a rally will start from Jadavpur and end at Jadubabur Bazar. On Wednesday, a rally will start from Howrah and end at Dorina Crossing at Esplanade. They will be conducted peacefully," she added.
Banerjee told the gathering that if the demonstrations become violent then BJP will take advantage of it. "BJP is waiting to take advantage of the situation and this is their age-old practice. BJP leaders are saying that law and order situation has deteriorated in Bengal at a time when three states where the party has the government — Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya — are burning. I appeal to people to maintain cool and follow the democratic path to state protests," she said, adding: "There was a time when I used to say that there would be no NRC and CAB but now the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh are saying the same thing."
Condemning the attack on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University on Sunday, she said: "It was most unfortunate. We have the videos which show who had set the buses on fire and how police had brutally assaulted the protesters."
The Chief Minister alleged that a few people were paid by the BJP to perpetrate violence in the state. She alleged that BJP is trying to engineer riots by putting the blame on Muslims for carrying out violent agitations. "Some leaders (who she did not specify) took money from BJP to carry out violence in different parts in Bengal. We are keeping a tab on the situation."
Coming down heavily on BJP she said: "The party believes that only it will survive and others will perish. We are not going to divide between the Hindus and the Muslims. It was Tagore who organised Rakhi bandhan where the Hindus tied rakhis on the hands of their Muslim brothers to thwart the proposal to partition Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905."