Even as the Northeast to simmer over the Citizenship Amendment Act, a massive protest was reported from West Bengal’s Howrah district on Friday. Thousands of protesters blocked the National Highway 6 at Uluberia in West Bengal's Howrah district. The visuals of the protests showed huge crowd chanting anti-NRC slogans. Agitators burnt tyres. So far, the protest remains peaceful. Meanwhile, the Left parties have called for an all-India protest against the CAB-NRC on December 19, 2019. Mamata Banerjee has been vocal about her displeasure over the contentious law. On the now-postponed Indo-Japan summit, Banerjee said that ‘it will be a blot on our country.’
#VIDEO | Thousands of protesters block National Highway in Howrah's Uluberia as #CABProtests spill over to West Bengal
Read full story: https://t.co/LFZ3NIV6CS pic.twitter.com/G86s2OiYhp— News Nation (@NewsNationTV) December 13, 2019
Earlier, Banerjee gave a clarion call to oppose the "divisive" bill "at any cost", and said not a single citizen of the country will be allowed to turn into a refugee. Assuring that the NRC and CAB will never be allowed in Bengal as long as the Trinamool is in power, Banerjee said the register of citizens and the new legislation are two sides of a coin. "It’s a divisive bill and shall be opposed at any cost," Banerjee said. Claiming that at least 30 people have committed suicide in the state due to panic over National Register of Citizens (NRC) being implemented here in the wake of publication of citizens register in the neighbouring state of Assam, Banerjee had said that in a secular country like India, citizenship can never be accorded on the basis of religion.