As the country celebrated the 71st Republic Day, the Left parties and Congress on Sunday organized around 5,000 joint meetings across West Bengal in protest against CAA and NPR.
According to media reports, out of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Population Register (NPR) meetings, 60 were held in Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal.
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During the meetings, the agitating Left and Congress activists pledged to protect the Indian Constitution where there is no place of discrimination among its citizens.
But as per the CAA, non-Muslim minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian — who migrated to India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh till December 31, 2014, following persecution over their faith, are now eligible for Indian citizenship.
It has been reported that all top Left Front and Congress leaders took part in the meetings organized in all the municipal wards and gram panchayat areas across West Bengal on the 7st Republic Day.
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West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra and Left Front chairman Biman Bose were the principal speakers at the meeting which was organised in the Entally area of central Kolkata.
While Left Front chairman Bose administered a pledge to protect the Indian Constitution, Congress leader Somen Mitra joined the chorus.
While speaking on the occasion, Bose urged the people to take to the streets in huge numbers in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which is discriminatory in nature, the proposed countrywide National Register of Citizens (NCR) and the National Population Register (NPR).
A report quoted Left leader Bose as saying: “If protestors are stopped, then a bigger movement will be launched. The movement will continue against both the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP.”
Former state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya and West Bengal CPI-M secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra addressed another meeting organized at Dhakuria in South Kolkata.