Bengal House stands by 'stateless'... TMC, Left & Cong condemn exclusion

An NRC camp at Chotoguma in Dhubri district of Assam, near Cooch Behar, on Tuesday. (Main Uddin Chisti)

TT, Calcutta: The Trinamul Congress, Left Front and the Congress on Tuesday stood united in the Bengal Assembly, passing a resolution condemning the exclusion of 40 lakh names from the draft of the National Register for Citizens in Assam.

The BJP state unit has sought to mock the resolution and defended the NRC draft.

In a rare show of unity on the floor of the House, the resolution, proposed by the Left and the Congress on Monday, was moved by parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee on Tuesday, followed by a discussion.

Members cutting across party lines - except those of the BJP - unanimously condemned the draft NRC.

"The issue is very serious, it is dangerous. We have a lot of political and ideological differences, but here, today, all of us are united on this issue," said Chatterjee, the Trinamul secretary-general.

Chatterjee said it was an attack on "everything" Bengali - Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee has alleged that most of the 40 lakh people are Bengalis - and welcomed the unity on the floor of the House to join forces in the fight against the alleged attack.

Chatterjee said an eight-member team from Trinamul would visit Assam on Thursday. He said a team of Bengal's civil society members might also go there soon.

"Shielding itself from the judiciary, the Centre is doing this, misusing its power. The exclusion (of names) is on the basis of religion and language. They have a definite plan. It is merely a political card, an exercise to cling to power," Chatterjee said.

The leader of the Opposition, Abdul Mannan of the Congress, demanded a meeting with Union home minister Rajnath Singh by an all-party delegation from the Bengal Assembly. "After this, when the Prime Minister comes to Bengal, we should all observe a statewide bandh," said Mannan.

Left legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty went on to assert that it should not be the responsibility of those whose names had been excluded to prove that they were Indian citizens. "It should be the NRC's responsibility to prove that these 40 lakh people are not Indians," he said.

Of the BJP's three MLAs, only Madarihat MLA Manoj Tigga was present in the House. He didn't, however, participate in the proceedings.

Outside, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh -the Kharagpur Sadar MLA - ridiculed the proceedings, when asked why he had chosen not to participate in the debate.

"Two obsolete political forces (the Congress and the Left) and a soon-to-be obsolete political force (Trinamul) were busy wrestling with shadows inside because they have ceased to matter outside. We are relevant outside, we matter to the people and that is why we chose not to be part of that sham," said Ghosh.

On Monday, Ghosh had vowed to conduct an Assam-like exercise in Bengal to throw out Bangladeshi immigrants should it come to power in the state.

On an announcement by minister and Trinamul's North 24-Parganas district chief Jyotipriyo Mullick of a symbolic rail roko across the district on Wednesday by Matuas, Ghosh said it was time for the community to shun Trinamul and align with the BJP.

According to Mullick, of the 40 lakh excluded names in Assam, 12 lakh are of Matuas.