Fight club

When the Rajya Sabha took up the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on December 11, Trinamool Congress MPs proposed the maximum number of amendments. All were voted down by the house. The Trinamool and its leader, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, have not given up their fight. Mamata has vowed not to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in West Bengal and has taken to the streets against it. She has even appeared in television advertisements against the CAA and the proposed National Register of Citizens.

West Bengal has erupted in anger. Violent protests have been reported from Murshidabad district, where more than 70 per cent of the population is Muslim, and from the North and South Parganas districts, the North and South Dinajpur districts and Malda. Dozens of trains and railway stations were set on fire, causing damages amounting to 01,500 crore. As protests remained unabated, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar called Mamata’s television advertisements and street protests unconstitutional.

“She is a chief minister who took the oath to protect the Constitution. How could she go against the law of the land?” asked Dhankhar. “The CAA is passed by Parliament, the president gave his assent and the Supreme Court has refused to stay it. How can a chief minister oppose it using taxpayers’ money?”

On December 23, taking up a bunch of public interest litigations, the Calcutta High Court asked the West Bengal government to suspend all state-funded advertisements against the CAA and the NRC till further hearing on January 9. But it is unlikely to stop Mamata.

“Till the government withdraws the Act, our movement will not stop. We will never accept the CAA. No NRC will be carried out in our state,” said Mamata. But the way the government handled the protests could cause trouble for the chief minister. Despite the widespread violence, only 17 first information reports were filed, prompting the Central government to step in.

Dhankhar, possibly under directions from Delhi, summoned the chief secretary and the director general of police for details on law and order. Though Mamata did not want them to go to the Raj Bhavan, she relented after being told that non-cooperation could result in a constitutional impasse. When chief secretary Rajiva Sinha and DGP Virendra called on Dhankhar, he asked them to file FIRs in all cases of violence.

Cases were registered, but only against leaders and workers of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, whose growing popularity has been worrying for Mamata. The AIMIM’s state in-charge Syed Jamirul Hasan and several party activists in Malda and Murshidabad were arrested.

“This is nothing but political revenge. The chief minister does not want to think about Muslims. She only wants to extract mileage out of the CAA and the NRC,” said senior AIMIM leader Mohammed Barkatullah. Not all Muslims are happy about the way Mamata handled the CAA issue. For instance, eight Trinamool MPs were not present in the Lok Sabha when the bill was put to vote, although the party had issued a whip. The MPs are yet to face any disciplinary action.

Mamata has, however, managed to win the support of left-leaning liberals and intellectuals through her strident anti-CAA protests. They have been present in significant numbers at her rallies. She has put on hold work on the National Population Register. She is also leveraging West Bengal’s special relationship with Bangladesh by warning that millions of Bengalis who had come from across the border could be deported or banished to detention centres if the NRC is implemented.

“How could the Modi government deny the fact that Bengal played a key role in stabilising Bangladesh? Successive Union governments, including the one led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, were instrumental in allowing that,” said Pradip Bhattacharya, a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha. “This government does not have any knowledge of history.” In response, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said Jamaat radicals and war criminals from Bangladesh had entered Bengal and were fomenting trouble. “They are taking out massive protests and are making the situation extremely critical. I have requested the Central government to take immediate steps to stop it,” said Ghosh.

Other chief ministers who are opposed to the CAA and the NRC have not been as strident as Mamata. Chief Ministers Amarinder Singh of Punjab, Kamal Nath of Madhya Pradesh and Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala have been more restrained. Mamata seems to be eyeing the leadership role of the anti-BJP front in the country and thinking that the ongoing protests might help her with that. Her adviser Prashant Kishor has called upon Congress chief ministers to join hands with other chief ministers who are campaigning against the CAA and the NRC as he felt that the national leadership of the Congress is missing in action. Kishor, who is a member of the Janata Dal (United), knows that JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is not leading the protests and that Mamata is the only person who is capable of doing so.

Bhattacharya reacted sharply to the suggestion. “Who are they to advise our chief ministers?” he asked. “Our chief ministers know how to conduct their protests. Our central leaders are at the forefront of the protests. We do not need sermons from the Trinamool Congress.”