Contending that she was the custodian of people’s rights, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would not let anyone harm their interests.

Asserting that the agitation against National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) would go on as long as necessary, Banerjee said that she would do everything in her power to protect the people of the state.

Advertisement

“We do not live at the mercy of anyone… I will not allow anyone snatch our rights,” the CM said at a public meeting at Patharpratima , on the western fringes of Sunderban forests.

“I am your ‘pehradar’ (custodian), if anyone comes to take away your rights, he will have to do it over my dead body,” Banerjee, who has been one of the most vocal critics of CAA, NRC, added.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been vehemently leading massive protests against the CAA and NRC on the streets of Kolkata.

Earlier, on January 3, Banerjee lashed out Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning whether Modi was the “ambassador of Pakistan” with a habit of glorifying and dragging in the neighbouring nation on every issue.

“There is one matter in my heart. I respect Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But I would like to put a question before him. When we live in such a large and the biggest democratic country, then why do you compare our country with Pakistan?” Mamata asked at a rally in West Bengal’s Siliguri.

The West Bengal BJP leadership had hoped that the new citizenship law would be its “political trump card” ahead of the 2021 assembly polls in the state. But an aggressive campaign against the CAA by the Trinamool Congress, other opposition parties, civil society groups, students and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration not to implement the CAA in the state, has put the saffron party on the backfoot.

Apart from launching statewide campaigns against the new legislation, Banerjee has participated in as many as six protest marches and three rallies in various parts of the state.

Mamata had on December 23 called for opposition unity by uniting all like-minded parties on a platform to protest against the “draconian” BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.

States of West Bengal, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Chhattisgarh have announced that they will not implement either the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Meanwhile, West Bengal and Kerala are the only two states which have stopped the National Population Register (NPR) procedures since they believe it is the first step for the contentious NRC.