‘ECI conspiring on behalf of Centre to slap NRC in Bengal’ Says Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of being a “partner in the conspiracy” hatched by the BJP and the Union government to implement NRC in the state.

She also claimed that if there is an attempt to indirectly slap NRC in West Bengal under the garb of special intensive revision (SIR) by the poll panel, there will be major opposition in the state against it.

“Under no circumstances will we be allowing implementation of NRC or setting up detention camps in the state. If there is any such attempt, there would be major resistance to such attempts,” the Chief Minister said while speaking at a protest rally at Birbhum district, which marked the beginning of Trinamool Congress’ sustained weekly agitation programme against the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister also gave a call to the migrant workers from West Bengal working in the BJP-ruled state to come back to Bengal instead of staying there and facing harassment. She also assured livelihood guarantees for the migrant workers returning to West Bengal from these BJP-ruled states.

According to her, especially those Bengali-speaking people are being harassed in BJP-ruled states whose Bengali accents are similar to those spoken by the Bangladeshi residents.

“Many people came to India from East Pakistan at the time of partition and thereafter became citizens of the country. Even after coming to India, they continued to speak in the accent that they used to speak when Bangladesh was a part of undivided India. So that same accent is still there in their speech. But that could not be a reason that they would be harassed,” the Chief Minister said. (IANS)

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