West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday discussed the exclusion of 19 lakh people from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) Assam with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. This is the first time Banerjee and Shah held a meeting.
Banerjee said that she had submitted a letter on the matter to Shah in which she has requested him to consider the NRC list that has been prepared and to see that the genuine residents of Assam who have been excluded from the list, do not suffer. She said several Bengali-speaking, Hindi-speaking people as well as many Gorkhas had been excluded from the list.
However, NRC in West Bengal was not discussed, Banerjee said, answering a question as she said the home minister had not raised the issue.
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Elaborating her stand on NRC in Bengal, she said that her stand remains the same as before and that she is against NRC in the state. She also cited the example of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar who has similarly refuted any need for NRC in Bihar. She said people in Bengal were afraid while getting their digital ration cards and were afraid.
Banerjee said that the home minister had listened to her and she hoped the matter would be treated positively.
The Bengal CM added that she had talks on issues concerning the issues on security along Bengal’s borders with neighbouring states and countries.
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Asked if she had talks on the name change of West Bengal, Banerjee said that she had already had a talk on the matter with Prime Minister yesterday.
