Mamata extends support to university students for anti CAA rally .

Naihati / Kolkata, (HS); Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today gave a clarion call to the college students and young generation of the state to ‘raise their voice’ against any attempt to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens(NRC)anywhere in the country, which according to her was ‘an attempt to divide the nation on the basis of religion’.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating a Handicraft fair at this North 24 Parganas district town, about 40 km from Kolkata, this afternoon, the Chief Minister said since the students could play a major role in forcing the government to change its decision by resorting to mass protest against the authorities, a number of state governments including West Bengal and Kerala besides Punjab, Rajasthan, and Bihar had announced their decision to oppose any proposal to introduce CAA or NRC in those states.

Moreover, the students community of a large number of renowned educational institutions like Jadavpur University, Jamia Milia and the Jawaharlal Nehru University besides several others in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai had also been protesting against the decision of the Narendra Modi government, she said and urged the students of all other colleges and universities in the state to come forward and raise their voice against the alleged ‘draconian laws’.

In this connection, she also extended her government’s full support to the students’ community who she alleged had been heckled in several states for opposing the central acts or suffered otherwise for participating in protest rallies.

About the ongoing controversy regarding the construction Detention Centres in Assam and elsewhere in the country, the Chief minister criticized the recent remarks of the Prime minister and the  Union Home Minister on the issue and reiterated that as long as her government was in power in West Bengal, there would be no Detention Centre in the state’. ‘We shall not allow any such step in the state under any circumstances’, she thundered in a bid to garner support from the common people.

Meanwhile, both Congress and its one-time political foe CPM jointly took out a protest rally against CAA and NRC in the city shouting anti-Modi and anti-Amit Shah slogans. Among others, West Bengal Pradesh Congress President Somen Mitra, its Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya, Left Front Chairman Biman Bose, Cpi-m state General Secretary Suryakanta Mishra, Party Chief Whip in the Assembly Sujan Chakraborty among many others took part in the rally which began at the Subodh Mullick Square to conclude at the Mahajati Sadan, about three km away in North Kolkata this afternoon.

Similarly, BJP also took out a massive Avinandan rally at Contai in West Midnapore district today in support of CAA and NRC. Led by state party president Dilip Ghosh and others, the rally was supported and participated by the large number of people shouting slogans and carrying placards and festoons in favor of the Prime minister and CAA.