‘No NRC, detention camps,’ says Mamata Banerjee as Citizenship (Amendment) Act implemented

The Trinamool Congress will oppose the National Register of Citizens if the Union government tries to carry out the exercise after the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at a press conference on Monday.

The National Register of Citizens is a proposed exercise to identify undocumented immigrants.

“No NRC, we just cannot accept NRC,” Banerjee said on Monday. “And if people are sent to detention camps in name of CAA, we will stop that ploy too…Remember this is a sensitive matter for Bengal and the North East. We do not want any unrest before the [Lok Sabha] elections.”

Banerjee’s statement came hours after the Centre implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act. Parliament had passed the law in December 2019 but its rules had not been notified.

The law aims to provide citizenship to undocumented migrants from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and had entered the country by December 31, 2014. The law has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims, sparking massive protests across the country. The protests were driven by the fear that the law could be used, along with the nationwide National Register of Citizens, to...

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