Mamata Banerjee
File picture of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Expressing concern over the exclusion of 40 lakh names in the final draft of NRC in Assam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the Centre for turning โ€œIndian citizens into refugeesโ€.

โ€œThey are turning Indian people into refugees in their own country,โ€ Banerjee said at a press meet in Kolkata.

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She said her government will consider providing shelter on humanitarian grounds to people who enter West Bengal from Assam.

She said she would try to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh on the subject. โ€œI am sending a team of party MPs to Assam and if necessary, I will go there too,โ€ she said.

โ€œMany people have been identified as foreigners and they are to be sent back. There are many children and women among themโ€ฆ So many Bengalis, Biharis, Hindus, Muslimsโ€ฆ they are very much Indians,โ€ said Banerjee, adding that she was โ€œworried about tortureโ€ of those left out.

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โ€œIt is a game plan to evict humanity and human beings forcibly and an attempt to isolate them in order to do vote politics. We do not believe in divide and rule policy,โ€ NDTV quoted Banerjee as saying.

โ€œSuch a huge step is being taken. Shouldnโ€™t the government have conversation with Bengal?โ€ Banerjee said.

โ€œEvery state has people staying from other states, like Gujarat and Maharashtra.โ€

Banerjeeโ€™s Trinamool Congress, the Congress, CPM and Samajwadi party protested in parliament, saying the list puts โ€œhuman rights and democratic rightsโ€ of people at stake.

In Rajya Sabha, TMC member Derek Oโ€™Brien pressed for a discussion on the exclusions from the NRC draft, calling it a โ€œhumanitarian issue, a human rights issueโ€.

โ€œSome people are unnecessarily trying to create an atmosphere of fearโ€ฆ This is a draft and not the final list,โ€ Home Minister Rajnath Singh said.

Urging parties not to โ€œcreate panicโ€, the Home Minister said, โ€œIt is a sensitive issue and should not be politicised unnecessarily.โ€

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