Hours Before Amit Shah’s NPR Rally in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee Takes a Dig With #ZeroDiscriminationDay Tweet

Kolkata: For the first time since the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to address a massive public rally at Kolkata’s iconic Shahid Minar ground on Sunday.

Finding itself on the back foot over the citizenship issue, the BJP has decided to send Shah to Kolkata to clear the confusion among the people, sources told News18. Shah will arrive at the Kolkata airport at 10.55 am and, after meeting senior party leaders, leave for the NSG office at Rajarhat. At around 2.40pm, he will reach Shahid Minar ground to address a public rally on Centre’s action plan with regards to the National Population Register (NPR).

In what is being seen by political experts as a warm-up exercise by the BJP before the municipal polls and 2021 Assembly polls, Shah will also launch a statewide campaign ‘Aar Noy Annayay’ (No More Injustice) to connect with nearly five crore voters in West Bengal. In the evening, he will offer prayers at Kalighat Temple and at 9.50 pm depart for Delhi. In between, he will party leaders at a hotel in the New Town area.

Hours before Shah’s arrival, state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted, “Today on UN ‘Zero Discrimination Day’, it pains me to witness the politics of discrimination being woven into the fabric of India. Let us pledge to uproot all forms of division based on caste, creed and religion from our society. We will never stand for discrimination of any kind.”

“‘Aar Noi Annay’ is aimed at highlighting the injustice caused to the people of West Bengal by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in Bengal. This will be inaugurated by Amit Shah on March 1,” said Dilip Ghosh, Bengal BJP president.

Through this campaign, the state BJP will connect with more than six crore voters over the next six months.

The saffron party is also working on digital platforms like sending ‘missed call’ and SMS, and using WhatsApp, websites and other social media platforms where people can directly share their grievances against the ruling state government.

Every ‘morcha’ and BJP cell has been asked to organise mass protests against Mamata Banerjee for her “misrule”.

“Some of the points which we are going to highlight will be TMC’s vote bank politics, unprecedented minority appeasement and attempts to mislead people about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),” Ghosh said.

After devastating poll results in the national capital and in a bid to win the 2021 Assembly polls in Bengal, the party is finding it necessary to address the issue clearly, especially in Bengal, amid confusion over NPR’s link with the NRC.

The NPR is a register of usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (village/sub-Town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

The objective of the NPR is to create an identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.

The assembly polls in Bengal will be a prestige battle for the BJP and political experts feel that Shah’s scheduled visit, nearly 45 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit Kolkata where he delivered speech on various issues including the CAA, says it all.

Banerjee has been vehemently opposing the NPR, NRC and CAA, and making repeated attempts through public rallies to convince people that NPR is linked with NRC.

On December 16, 2019, five days after Citizenship Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, Bengal government was the first to take an official step and halt the process of NPR across the state.

On January 27, West Bengal became the fourth opposition-ruled state to pass a resolution against the CAA in its assembly after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan.