Mamata challenges Shah to clarify on CAA provisions

Taking on Union Home Minister Amit Shah a day after he accused the country's opposition parties of 'misleading' the people on CAA, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday challenged him to clarify provisions of the new citizenship law and alleged the Centre was planning to prepare two separate NPR lists.

Baneejee was addressing a rally at Chawkbazar of this picturesque east Himalayan town where she led a five-km rally against the citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Population Register and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Speaking in Hindi, she accused the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi of trying to enforce the CAA in only states where parties other than the BJP were in saddle.

"Every day the Home Minister is giving a new spin. Now she says we - the opposition parties - are misleading the people. I challenge him to clarify whether or not the CAA has provisions under which a person would be adjudged a foreigner first and then only be allowed to apply for Indian citizenship," she said.

Virtually accusing the Centre of resorting to untruths, she said while it was assuring people that they don't need documents during the NPR exercise, at the same time the form has columns for mentioning the date and place of birth of parents.

"It is the Centre's plan to come out with two lists, one of those people who submit documents, and another comprising those who don't," she said.

With a lot of Gorkha people attending the rally, Banerjee said lakhs of people from the community have become homeless following the NRC exercise carried out in Assam.

"Such things will not happen in Darjeeling so long I am there," she said.IANS