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“If needed, I will fight alone,” a livid Mamata Banerjee declared on Thursday, 9 January, in the West Bengal Assembly where she said she will boycott a meeting called by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on 13 January over campus violence and the CAA, exposing the opposition faultlines on the issues.
Banerjee, also the TMC president, was angry over incidents of violence in her state during a trade union strike called by organisations affiliated to the Left and the Congress over "anti-people" policies, including economic measures and livewire issues like the new citizenship law and a pan-India NRC.
Banerjee said “double standards”of the Left Front and Congress will not be tolerated.
“I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on 13 January in New Delhi as I don't support the violence that the Left and Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday),” the chief minister said at the state Assembly.
She said since the House had already adopted a resolution against a pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) in September last year which denounced according Indian citizenship to minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on the basis of religion, there was no need for a fresh resolution.
As Opposition MLAs insisted on a fresh resolution, the tempestuous leader launched into a harangue, defending her stance and declaring she will not attend the meeting called by Gandhi.
The meeting called by Gandhi is being seen as an attempt to bring together all opposition parties against the Modi government, which is facing unmitigated fire from the opposition over Sunday night violence at the JNU. The opposition has blamed the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student front of the RSS, for the violence.
A temperamental Banerjee also sought “forgiveness” of opposition leaders who will attend the meeting called by Gandhi, saying “it was I who had mooted the idea. But, after what happened yesterday in my state, it will not be possible for me to attend the meeting,” she said.
The Left and the Congress in West Bengal were quick to pounce on Banerjee for her decision to give the meeting a miss, alleging it was aimed at “pleasing the BJP leadership.”
CPI (M) politburo member Mohammed Salim accused Banerjee of attempting to scuttle the opposition's efforts to come on a common platform over “burning issues.”
“It is clear who is in favour of the RSS. Her acts of protests are just a show-off,” he said.
Meanwhile, Banerjee on Thursday took out a protest march against CAA, NRC, in Madhyamgram, North 24 Parganas.
(With inputs from PIT, ANI)
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