Kolkata: Terming the ruling Trinamool Congress as the 'B' team of the BJP, opposition Congress and CPI(M) on Thursday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of deliberately preventing the passage of an anti-CAA resolution in the assembly.
The demand by two opposition parties for a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was turned down by the ruling party in an "arbitrary manner", Congress leader Abdul Mannan told a press meet after the one-day assembly session.
"If the TMC is serious about opposing the CAA and NRC, what prevented them from passing the resolution? It shows they have become the B team of the BJP," he said.
The leader of the opposition in the Assembly said the Congress and CPI(M) had followed all parliamentary norms to move the resolution against the CAA and held talks with Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay.
"But today they said it cannot be taken up as the CM had already discussed the matter in September last year in the Assembly. Was the CAA passed in September? We had even suggested that the resolution can be moved by the TMC. Never in the past any ruling party had used the Assembly in this way," Mannan said.
Earlier, Banerjee said in the House since the Assembly had adopted a resolution against a pan-India NRC in September last year, which also denounced according Indian citizenship to people on the basis of religion, there was no need for a fresh resolution.
While the TMC supremo was hitting the street to air her protest against the CAA "probably under fear of losing the votes of secular-minded people aghast with the Centre's move, she has entered into a secret understanding with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah not to proceed much on the issue to protect the leaders (of her party) accused in chit fund cases from CBI probes", Mannan said.
Referring to the draft of the resolution, which the opposition had wanted to discuss in the assembly, he said, "Nowhere in the draft we had uttered a single word against the state government. We were even ready for them to change any word of the draft if they wished."
CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said the CM and her party wanted to keep the Centre in good humour to shield those involved in ponzy scams.
"The CM has said she will not attend the anti-CAA meeting of opposition parties in New Delhi on January 13. Even if she doesn't want to participate in a meeting which will be attended by all parties opposed to the BJP's divisive laws, the meeting will take place and only she will be exposed before people," Chakraborty said.
Banerjee said she will boycott a meeting called by Congress's interim president Sonia Gandhi on January 13 over campus violence and the CAA as she did not support the violence that the Left and the Congress unleashed in West Bengal during the trade union strike on Wednesday.
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