Betai, May 2: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday tried to reach out to the Matuas in their domain in Nadia’s Tehatta reminding them that the BJP’s citizenship promise is a trap to identify them as “foreigners” and eventually to snatch all rights and facilities of a bonafide citizen.
Mamata’s appeal comes a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Tehatta’s Shymanagar, a Matua domain, located barely 7 km from Betai, where Mamata Banerjee held her poll meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Speaking at the Harichand-Guruchand stadium in support of party candidate Mahua Moitra, Trinamul chairperson accused Narendra Modi as “liar” for the citizenship promise made by his government through the provisions of the recently implemented Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
“He used to speak lies. He would come here tomorrow to speak you the lies again”, Mamta told the crowd consisting of a sizeable percentage of Matua devotees.
Accusing Narendra Modi and the BJP of misleading the Matuas, Mamata said, “What citizenship are you (Modi) offering? You (Matuas) are natural citizens of India and nobody has the right to snatch your citizenship”.
“You asked Matuas to submit citizenship application. But your candidate from Bongaon has not so far submitted his application. He is very clever. He knows that once the application is submitted he will become a foreigner”, Mamata said alleging that If one applies, he will lose his IT PAN, aadhaar, and ration card and he will eventually miss all the facilities.
“The CAA is a ploy to implement NRC so that people can be evicted from the country”, Mamata further alleged.
In her attempt to woo Matuas further Mamata said that she took the responsibility for treatment of matua matriarch Baro Maa–Binapani Debi when she fell ill. “I used to bring her to Kolkata for treatment…Even at that time I was not in power and no one knew her”, Mamata said reminding her contribution towards the development of Matua Bhawan, the development of the Harichand Guruchand University campus, and other welfare initiatives for the community.
Mamata later joined a cultural show with the Matuas and danced a few steps with community members along with Mahua Moitra.
Earlier she eulogized party candidate Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from Lok Sabbath over “cash for quiz” allegations, for her dynamic role in the parliament that often caused embarrassment to the Modi government.
Claiming that one of the reasons behind Modi’s Friday visit to Tehatta is Mahua Moitra, Mamata said, “They have big troubles with Mahua…She used to speak on her face categorically. She was never afraid of them and fought like a tiger. She earned the wrath for disclosing the bitter truth showing how they are looting the country”.
“They became afraid of Mahua and so conspired to expel her from the Parliament”, Mamata said while urging the voters to elect her again and to send her to Parliament.
“Modi can expel Mahua from parliament, but he could not take her away from the heart of the people. So I urge you to accept her again that you have not expelled her but rather accepted her in Krishnanagar again”, she said.