The CPI-M today accused the TMC and the BJP of playing politics of polarisation based on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue for garnering votes. CPI-M politburo member and former MP Muhammad Salim said that the BJP is trying to get in Bengal by reaping the dividends of its politics over NRC in Assam. “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is too following its footsteps.
The Left Front democratic forces alone will organise the right pro people movement to foil the TMC-BJP design,” he said. Salim said it required unity of the people of West Bengal to combat against any effort of political communalism. Expressing his concerns over competitive political communalism, the CPI (M) leader alleged that there was complete constitutional breakdown in the country.
“The erosion of the Constitution is necessary for the RSS to convert secular democratic India to a Hindu Rashtra. NRC is being used as an issue to stoke communal passions, to divide people and consolidate the Hindutva vote bank. They are destroying the secular fabric of our country by breaking people’s unity,” he said. He also said that it seemed that chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Union home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were from same RSS Nagpur school as they had been speaking in the same tone.
“Even Lal Krishna Advani, whom Miss Banerjee had once honoured as her political guru, had supported the driving out of Bengalis from Assam during the Parliament session. MP Indrajit Gupta then opposed it and even told Advani not to play with fire,” he said. Former MP said that the CPI-M party’s stand on NRC is very clear. “NRC was part of the Assam Accord and it is, therefore, relevant in Assam. It is completely extraneous to any other state in the country. Therefore, it cannot be extended beyond Assam,” he said.