Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Cooch Behar on Monday sharpened her attack on the Border Security Force (BSF), and promised to "fight like a tiger cub" against the National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act.
Alleging that the central force planned to issue identity cards to residents near the Bangladesh border, she expressed fear that the move might impact the border population and accused the BJP of picking up issues of the NRC and CAA again ahead of the Lok Sabha polls for political interest.
“The BSF has planned to issue new identity cards to people living near the border. Let me alert you… don’t take the card, and say you have your voter, Aadhaar and ration cards. If you take the (BSF) card, you may be in a vulnerable situation and they might use the NRC against you. I will fight like a tiger cub to counter the NRC and CAA, but you don’t fall into the trap,” Mamata told the crowd at Raasmela Ground in Cooch Behar, which shares borders with Bangladesh.
During her speech, Mamata also instructed the chief secretary and Cooch Behar district magistrate and superintendent of police to file FIRs against the BSF if they fire at villagers indiscriminately or torture border residents.
Mamata, who had earlier been vociferous against the Centre’s decision to increase the BSF’s ambit from 15km to 50km within Indian territory from the border, had sent similar instructions earlier to the police and district administrative officials to act strictly against the central force if they were found to have acted unfairly against border residents.
“They (the BJP) want to conduct the elections unfairly by threatening and intimidating people. We should not forget Sitalkuchi where four men were shot dead by the BSF. It is disappointing that those involved in the firing got bail. How can this happen?” said Mamata.
On April 10, 2021, during the Assembly elections, the on-duty Central Industrial Security Force personnel (not the BSF) fired at a group of voters after violence broke out in a polling booth in Sitalkuchi Assembly constituency of Cooch Behar district. Four youths died in the firing.
Mamata also took on the Centre on the CAA and the NRC, and claimed her party had been the first to hit the streets against the NRC.
“The Rajbangshis here are already citizens. They (the BJP) are now screaming CAA, CAA once again to do politics before the elections. Everybody is a citizen and we have given them the recognition, permanent settlement, and the benefits of our welfare schemes. If these people aren't citizens, how did they vote? How did they get the benefits of these welfare schemes? We will not let the Centre implement the CAA,” said Mamata.
Mamata’s assertion comes at a time when BJP leaders, including its legislators from Bengal, have started claiming the CAA would be implemented soon.
The BJP's claim is being seen in Bengal as an attempt to placate communities like Matuas, who form a sizeable chunk of the vote bank.
On November 29 last year, Union home minister Amit Shah at a public meeting in Calcutta said no one could stop the implementation of the CAA.
Again, on Sunday, junior Union minister and Bongaon MP Santanu Thakur, who is from the Matua community, said at a rally in South 24-Parganas that the CAA would be implemented "within seven days".
On Monday, Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP's Nandigram MLA and leader of the Opposition, also spoke on the deadline to implement the CAA.
"She (Mamata) has nothing to do with this (CAA). The CAA will be implemented within February. As far as I know, it will be implemented possibly at the end of next month and the Centre will give options to people for direct enrollment. No one will listen to her (Mamata),” said Adhikari in Calcutta.