Once together, now apart; Mamata Banerjee flips stating her decision to skip Sonia Gandhi’s anti-CAA meet

Kolkata, January 9: Known for its violence and goon tactics to exemplify their power in the state of West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has stooped down to limits signifying violence, harassment. Supporting Congress in its stand on Citizenship Amendment Act, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has flipped her stance asserting that she will boycott the Opposition's anti-CAA meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on 13 January to protest the violence unleashed in the state allegedly by Left Front and Congress workers during a trade union strike.

 

The 24-hour nationwide strike by central trade unions across the nation on Wednesday was marked by incidents of violence and arson, blocking of railway tracks and roads by protestors trying to enforce the shutdown in Bengal.

Mamata said "double standards" of the Left Front and Congress will not be tolerated. "I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on 13 January in New Delhi as I don't support the violence that the Left and Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday)," the chief minister said at the state Assembly.

Incidents of violence and arson were reported from various parts of West Bengal with buses, a police vehicle and government properties being vandalised by strikers who tried to enforce the 24-hour bandh on Wednesday. Protesters blocked a major road in Sujapur area of Malda district, set tyres on fire, ransacked government buses and torched several vehicles, including a police van.

When police tried to control the situation, they hurled stones and crude bombs. The police then baton-charged the mob, lobbed teargas shells and fired rubber bullets, officials said. In various parts of the state, railway tracks and roads were blocked, affecting normal life.

Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of Opposition parties, including the Left, to discuss the situation arising out of violence on various university campuses and protests in the country over the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.