Modi could not visit Assam due to protests, but welcomed to Kolkata by mayor: CPM targets TMC

KOLKATA: CPM leader Mohammed Salim on Monday accused West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of having entered into a tacit unde1rstanding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as he questioned her real intentions behind the anti-CAA agitations.
Salim said the prime minister could not visit Assam on two occasions owing to the anti-CAA protests, but was welcomed to Kolkata by its mayor Firhad Hakim.
Addressing a rally at the Shahid Minar ground here, Salim also questioned Banerjee's meeting with Modi at the Raj Bhavan, which she had described as courtsey.
"If the Trinamool Congress is so much against CAA, why were some of its MPs not present in the Lok Sabha during voting on the important Citizenship Amendment Bill," he asked.
Salim said that while a resolution was passed in the Kerala Assembly demanding scrapping of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the West Bengal chief minister refused to do so after leader of opposition Abdul Mannan and CPM leader in the Assembly Sujan Chakraborty proposed a similar resolution in the House here.
The Trinamool Congress supremo earlier in the day said that the West Bengal Assembly would adopt a resolution against the amended Citizenship Act in three-four days.
Salim said that attempts are being made by the BJP to divide people on religious, linguistic and caste lines so as to put the issues of unemployment, rising prices of commodities and civil liberties in the back burner.
"Anti-NRC protests in the country and the state have created fear not only among Modi and Shah, but also Mamata Banerjee," he claimed, holding that it has now become a nationwide movement, irrespective of the political divide.
The CPM leader alleged that the TMC supremo would not allow other parties to hold rallies and meetings against CAA, NPR and NRC in the state.
"Modi and Mamata are students of the same teacher, which is L K Advani," the CPM Politburo member alleged.
Taking on BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who is known for his off the cuff remarks, Salim said that the saffron party leader has been insulting the psyche and culture of Bengal through his speeches.
He alleged that it is the quality of those in power in West Bengal that has given Ghosh the audacity to utter such words.
Addressing the meeting, CPM's state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra urged the TMC government to file a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the CAA, like the Kerala government has done.
"I would like her government to file a case," he said.
Reacting to Banerjee's assertion that a resolution would be passed in the Assembly against the contentious CAA, Mishra quipped that he will "thank" her after the resolution is actually placed before the House.
Mishra said that the CPM will hold 5,000 public meetings across the state against the CAA, NPR and the proposed nationwide NRC on the Republic Day for upholding the Constitution, which was adopted on January 26.
A coffin carried by some party workers to the meeting with slogans written on it against Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, was given a symbolic burial in front of the stage from where Left leaders addressed the gathering.