Mamata Banerjee's Bengal Becomes 4th State to Pass Anti-CAA Resolution

West Bengal's East Indian state on Monday became the fourth state legislature to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the wake of a huge nationwide outcry against the controversial law and the new National Citizens Register (NRC), Scroll.in announced citing PTI.

Kerala, Punjab, and Rajasthan had earlier passed resolutions against the controversial law. Whereas Congress governs Punjab and Rajasthan, Kerala and West Bengal have Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments, respectively.

Speaking at the assembly when her government moved the motion, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "This agitation is not just of minorities but of all. I praise my Hindu brothers for leading this protest from the front. We will not accept CAA, NPR, and NRC in Bengal. We must fight peacefully."

Mamata has been a strong critic of the new law and has led the protest in her state from the front.

The West Bengal Assembly had already passed a resolution against the National Population Register (NPR) on December 16 and another against the NRC in September.

States such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Bihar have said they will not implement the CAA or the NPR and the NCR.

The CAA and the NRC were a key part of the election manifesto of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Hindu nationalist party.

The government believes the legislation is needed to protect refugees across south Asia. The CAA aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who arrived in India before December 31, 2014, from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The Act has been widely criticized for excluding Muslims, leading to protests against it. Clashes between protesters and police leaving at least 26 deaths have been a regular occurrence since December 12, when the government passed the legislation.

Tens of thousands protested in India’s financial hub of Mumbai, as well as Lucknow, the capital of populous Uttar Pradesh state which has seen the highest number of deaths since the unrest began. Both were predominantly female-led.

The NRC is a proposed nationwide exercise to identify undocumented immigrants. One such exercise, carried out in India’s northeastern state of Assam last year, resulted in the exclusion of 1.9 million people.

Source: India Today