Kolkata: Former Trinamool MP and grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, professor Sugata Bose on Thursday, hit out at Home minister Amit Shah and dared him to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). "The Home Minister should note that Mahatma Gandhi, in mid-November 1947, had categorically told the All India Congress Committee and the then government that no Muslim in the Indian union should feel that his life was unsafe here. He had also taken his last fast — to make Muslims feel safe in India — from January 13 to January 18, 1948. He told the RSS and the Hindu Maha Sabha categorically that there were troubles looming even in Kathiawar and Rajkot. He told if you dont stop then it will be a fraud on God. We need to revisit those years of our history," said Bose, during Netaji Subhas Chandra Boses birth anniversary celebration programme at Netaji Institute For Asian Studies (NIFAS). Dr Aditya Mukherjee, professor of Contemporary Indian History, Centre for Historical Studies School, Social Sciences of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Suranjan Das, director of NIFAS, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University were also present on the occasion. Boses remark comes two days after Shah said that the law will not be scrapped despite the protests over it. The minister accused the Congress of not implementing the suggestions that came from its own leaders in the past on granting citizenship to minority Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) and Afghanistan after Partition. "It is Mamata didis party which is leading the fight against fascism from the forefront," said Mukherjee. He pointed out that nowadays freedom of speech is in danger. "If we say something against the government then we are being labelled as anti-national. In RSS schools, class IV children (nine-year-old children) are made to carry weapons and spread hatred," added Mukherjee. While the controversial act was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2019, it seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there. It might be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that her government would pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) soon. A special session of the Assembly will be convened on January 27, regarding the same. She also urged all the North-Eastern states including those ruled by the BJP not to conduct the National Population Register (NPR) in their respective states as it may be a ploy of the Centre to implement the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

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