BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday condemned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration that the State would open its doors to people in distress in Bangladesh.
“I should not be speaking on the affairs of Bangladesh since that is a sovereign nation and whatever needs to be said on the issue is a subject matter for the Centre. But I can tell you this — if helpless people come knocking on the doors of Bengal, we will surely provide them shelter,” Ms. Banerjee said at the Trinamool Congress’s ‘Martyrs Day’ rally on Sunday.
In response, BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons that Ms. Banerjee had always opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which promised citizenship for persecuted religious minorities in the neighbouring countries, but now spoke of giving shelter to anyone in need. “What does this mean?” he asked.
Mr. Prasad said that the Constitution, about which Opposition leaders made statements again and again, gave the Central government, and not the States, the power to provide shelter to any foreigner.
The BJP leader also termed “irresponsible and condemnable” Ms. Banerjee’s purported remarks — about wanting West Bengal’s relations with India to remain good. He accused her of attempting to justify the demographic change in the State, stating that there were only three Muslim-majority districts when India got independence, and now there were nine.
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