Black flag shown to PM Modi, Mamata Banerjee skips at Kolkata Port Trust event

Kolkata, Jan 12: Black flag was shown to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Netaji Indoor Stadium where he reached a short while ago to be a part of the celebration to mark 150-years of the Kolkata Port Trust.

Speculations were rife that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would be joining PM Narendra Modi on stage at the 150-years of Kolkata Port Trust celebration event. However, Mamata Banerjee is not present at the event.

Meanwhile, students, mostly affiliated to the Congress and the Left parties, continued protests here for the second consecutive day on Sunday against the amended citizenship act, despite PM Narendra Modi's assurance that the new law would not harm the interests of any citizen.

Activists, who hit the streets on Saturday with placards that read 'Modi go back' and 'Down with BJP', continued their sit-in all night at Esplanade area in the state capital, insisting that their agitation would continue till the prime minister leaves the city.

Some of them also staged protests at several vantage points here since morning, raising slogans against the prime minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for bringing in the "divisive" law.

Dispelling fears over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Modi said earlier in the day that a section of the youth was being misguided about the law and asserted that it would not take away anybody's citizenship.

"I want to make this clear again that the CAA is not about taking away anybody's citizenship, but about granting citizenship," he said.

The PM is on a two-day visit to the city. Black flags and angry chants had greeted Modi as he arrived here on Saturday afternoon, but nicety was not entirely abandoned as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shared dais with him while remaining insistent on annulment of the new citizenship law.