West Bengal: TMC urges people to refrain from submitting documents for NRC

TMC leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury on Friday asked the people of West Bengal to refrain from submitting their original documents to the government the purpose of NRC. While addressing a rally against the CAA and NRC, Siddiqullah Chowdhury appealed to the people not to submit their original documents when the government officials seek details to carry out NRC procedures.

"Giving up the original documents will only cause you trouble. You will lose your only weapon against the government if you submit the papers," the TMC leader said.  

Furthermore, Siddiqullah urged people to keep their identities safe when the government announces their documents. "This will be a fight between policies in accordance with article 14 of the Indian constitution," he said.

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Anti-CAA protest led by TMC

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been leading protests against the NRC and the CAA for the past few weeks. She has led quite a few protest marches and has given speech after speech to put forward the points about what she claims the 'unjust nature' of the NRC and CAA. She has also called for all opposition parties across the nation to come together against the CAA and the NRC.

The West Bengal government led by Mamata Banerjee has stalled the preparation and updating of the National Population Register (NPR) process amid the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Banerjee has vociferously said, 'No CAA, No NRC' in West Bengal. She has written to several Opposition leaders for joint opposition to the Act. She has also suggested a UN-monitored referendum on the issue and has maintained that NRC and CAA will never be implemented in Bengal.

Mamata Banerjee has been among the many leaders to voice out strong dissent against the Delhi police action against the protestors from Delhi's Jamia Millia University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh Muslim University where the protests turned violent with incidents of stone-pelting and damaging public property. 

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Nationwide protests

There have been widespread protests against the CAA and the NRC in various parts of the country. The opposition's main contention is that the CAA violates the Constitutional principle of Right to Equality. Furthermore, the protesters have raised apprehensions over the implementation of the CAA and the NRC in combination. 

The CAA seeks to provide citizenship to the minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who faced religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

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