BJP Using You To Win Polls, Mamata Banerjee Tells Bengal's Matuas
NDTV
Mamata Banerjee said the BJP brings up the Citizenship Amendment Act to win votes in elections.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday took on the union government over its recent overtures to the politically influential Matua community in the state over the implementation of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA.
"They rake up CAA only during elections. They want to create confusion over CAA amongst you. And when polls are near, the idea of NRC (National Register of Citizens) enters their head," she said, referring to the law that the BJP has claimed will benefit the Hindu community that migrated to West Bengal from present-day Bangladesh after the partition and the formation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Cleared in 2020 in the face of fervent protests from Muslims, opposition parties, civil society groups and the parts of the northeast, the CAA promises citizenship rights to people who came to India from neighbouring countries before 2015, as long as they are not Muslims.
While the law has faced strong criticism from groups who fear they will be disenfranchised and declared illegal immigrants, the Matua community in Bengal has been promised greater legitimacy once the law is implemented. The delay in the implementation has frustrated some of them.
