Siliguri: Union defence minister Rajnath Singh trained guns on chief minister Mamata Banerjee for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) while criticising the law and order situation of Bengal.
Singh, who spoke at three public meetings in Murshidabad, Malda and Siliguri, emphasised that the BJP was determined to implement the CAA and the UCC across the country.
“We don’t have any difference in our words and deeds. We had promised CAA and UCC and have done both. Here in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is saying that she will not allow CAA in the state. I want to ask her why she is misleading people. Let me unequivocally assert that no one can stop the implementation of CAA,” Singh said at a public meeting in Siliguri.
Singh’s assertion comes at a time when Mamata, her heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee and other Trinamool leaders have openly said they would not let the Centre implement the CAA and the UCC. The move is seen as an attempt by the ruling dispensation in Bengal to consolidate minority votes, which constitute around 28 per cent of the total votes in the state.
Addressing public meetings in South Dinajpur in support of Trinamool nominee Biplab Mitra, who is contesting from Balurghat against state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar, Mamata said: “We will not let CAA and NRC be implemented in Bengal. Also, once UCC is implemented, it will snatch religious and cultural freedom from different communities and we are against it.”
Singh, on the other hand, doubled down on the resolve to implement UCC. “We are putting impetus on UCC. This will end the injustice meted out to women of a specific community for decades,” he said in Murshidabad, a district with around 70 per cent minority population.
He also raked up the Sandeshkhali issue and questioned the alleged silence of the TMC government.
In Siliguri, Singh alleged that the TMC was trying to change the demography of Bengal. “I want to tell Mamata Didi that she shouldn’t do politics only to form her party’s government here. She is confusing people of the minority community and trying to intimidate them with a false narrative,” Singh said.
