Opposition parties to meet on CAA, NRC on Monday, Mamata to boycott

The Opposition parties are slated to meet on Monday (January 13) to discuss the current situation of unrest in the country triggered by protests against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi will also formulate a joint action plan against CAA and NRC.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati, however, will not attend the meeting.

Mamata, a vehement critic of the Modi government’s policies took everyone by surprise when she slammed the Left and the Congress of playing “dirty politics” and announced that she would wage a lone war against CAA and NRC. Her statement came following clashes between workers of the Left and Trinamood Congress during the recent trade union strike.

“I was the first to launch a movement against CAA, NRC. But what the Left and the Congress are doing in the name of CAA-NRC is not but vandalism,” she was quoted as saying.

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The Opposition’s meeting comes at a time when protests against CAA and NRC have intensified across the country, especially in premier universities including Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

While addressing the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi on Saturday (January 11) Congress president Sonia Gandhi said the CAA was a “discriminatory and divisive” law with a “sinister” agenda to segregate people along religious lines.

She lauded the efforts of students across the country for braving the cold and police lathis on the streets to oppose CAA and NRC and demanded the formation of a high-powered commission to inquire into the incidents related to anti-CAA protests and give justice to the wronged.

The BJP on its part, is determined to implement both across the country. In an address on Sunday (January 12) in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a section of youth was being misguided by the citizenship law which he assured will not take away anybody’s citizenship.

Taking a dig at the Opposition, he said some people with political interests are spreading rumours on the new law.

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