Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has most vehemently censured the final draft NRC in Assam which excluded over 40 lakh people. Her party along with the Opposition laid attacks on the central government for the exclusion of people in Assam and has given a communal angle to the whole procedure.
When the list was released, Mamata said that it will make people refugees in their own country. The debate over the draft NRC has been continuing for some time now with Opposition creating ruckus both inside and outside the Parliament with their statements.
Banerjee who has strongly come forward in support of the “infiltrators” or “immigrants”, did not carry the same opinion 13 years back. In 2005, when Mamata Banerjee was an MP in the Parliament and a BJP ally, in one Monsoon session, the current West Bengal Chief Minister marched towards the Speaker’s aisle and threw a bunch of papers at him.
The 2005 video of Bengal CM has been making rounds of the social media as well as various news channels to portray the major change in the attitude of Banerjee. The whole story behind the video was that during that time the then Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal had not allowed Banerjee to discuss her concerns in the Parliament– the issue of names of Bangladeshi immigrants in the Bengal voter list. In 2005, Mamata was of the view that the “infiltration into Bengal has become a disaster now”.
An irate Banerjee had then resigned from her MP seat which was not accepted by the then Lower House Speaker Somnath Chaterjee as the resignation was not presented in a “specific format” which Banerjee must have known about.
During that time, Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) ruled Bengal. Banerjee’s TMC was of the view that the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants contributed to the Left Front’s vote bank. This was the reason Banerjee wanted to raise the matter in the Parliament.
Now after 13 years, with CPM long gone from the ruling post, and TMC’s Mamata ruling for two consecutive years, Banerjee now has her eyes on the prime ministerial post. “Now, over the course of time, it (Bangladeshi immigrants) has been used as a formidable vote bank by her,” told Rajat Sethi, political analyst to NDTV.
NDTV reported,”She is essentially trying to address them and take a position in support of them,” said Journalist Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay. He said that Banerjee has come in support of the “illegal” immigrants because they can become a part of her vote bank now.
Banerjee in a totally changed stance from that of 2005, has welcomed the immigrants of Assam excluded from the draft in Bengal. Accusing the list of being prejudiced towards certain minority sections, Banerjee threatened that the nation is at a “risk of a civil war” and “bloodbath”.