Congress hosts meeting on CAA & NRC; TMC, BSP, Sena, DMK, AAP give it a miss

Leaders of Congress and 19 other Opposition parties held a meeting in New Delhi, in order to corner the government over the contentious amended Citizenship Act (CAA) and the proposed NRC. However, Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress, Mayawati's BSP, Samajwadi Party and DMK were among the notable absentees in the meeting that was held to deliberate the strategy.  The meeting was called by the Congress party amid the nation-wide unrest against CAA.

The Opposition parties expressed concern over the violence in the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Univerity (JNU), wherein 37 students were injured and police action over the anti-CAA protesters in different parties of the country, especially the BJP-ruled countries. The meeting is being held two days after the meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC) in which it strongly opposed CAA and NRC and termed the National Population Register (NPR) being carried out by the Central government as a "disguised NRC."  

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Opposition parties attending meet

The meeting was attended by chief minister of Jharkhand Hemant Soren and leaders from both the National Conference and the PDP, however, leaders from AAP and Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena did not attend the meeting. The Congress leaders present in the meeting included party chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, KC Venugopal, and AK Antony.

The opposition party leaders who attended the meeting were NCP's Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, JMM's Hemant Soren, RJD's Manoj Jha, CPI's D Raja, Loktantrik Janta Dal's Sharad Yadav, IUML's PK Kinhalikutty, RSP's Shatrujeet Singh, Kerala Congress-Mani's Thomas Chazhikkadan, AIUDF's Sirajuddin Ajmal and Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference. Others present include PDP's Mir Mohd Fayaz, D Kupendra Reddy of JD-S, RLD's Ajit Singh, Hindustani Awami Morcha's Jitan Ram Manjhi, RLSP's Upendra Kushwaha, Swabhiman Paksha's Raju Shetty, Forward Block's G Devarajan, and VCK's Thol Thirumavalavan.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has fierly opposed the CAA, had stated last week that her party will not partake in the meeting over the "violence" by Congress and Left parties during a strike last week. BSP chief Mayawati cited "betrayal" by the Congress in Rajasthan as the reason for her party not attending the meeting. Mayawati conveyed her decision in tweets on Monday and said the participation of the party would have hurt its workers in Rajasthan.   

"As is known, despite BSP supporting Congress government in Rajasthan from outside, they broke our MLAs for a second time and inducted them in their own party, which is a complete betrayal," she said. "Under such circumstances, the BSP attending today's Opposition meeting called by Congress will be demoralising for the people of the party in Rajasthan. So the BSP will not take part in this meeting," she added. However, she asserted BSP's opposition to the CAA, saying, "Once again, I appeal to the Central government to take back this divisive and unconstitutional law."

AAP MP Sanjay Singh claimed that his party missed the meeting as they were not informed about it. "We have no information about any such meeting. So makes no sense to attend a meeting we have no information about it," Singh told ANI. The government has said the CAA does not impact any Indian citizen and there is no link between the NPR and the NRC. Morever, Home Minister Amit Shah asserted in a rally that CAA will be be rolled back by even 'an inch.'

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Monday, became the first BJP ally to openly signal his reservations over the CAA. He said that he was open to debate the contentious Act in Bihar Assembly. Furthermore, asserted that a country-wide implementation of National Register of Citizens was "needless" and had "no justification." "There should be a debate on CAA. If people want, then there will be a discussion in this house. As for NRC, there is no question of the NRC and no justification for it," the Chief Minister said before the Bihar House.

(With ANI inputs) 

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