Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised concerns over attacks on Bengali speakers in BJP-ruled states.
He said Bengali-speaking migrants are being wrongly branded as Bangladeshi infiltrators.
West Bengal Migrants Welfare Board reported over 1,100 harassment complaints in 10 months.
Adhir Chowdhury Flags Attacks On Bengali Speakers To PM
Congress leader urges Modi to intervene, warns assaults could fuel communal tension.
Summary
During his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, Congressman Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury brought up the issue of attacks on Bengali speakers, particularly in states controlled by the BJP.
Former West Bengal Congress chairman Chowdhury called for the prime minister to step in and help put an end to these attacks, saying they could cause tension between communities and possibly even unrest in the state.
"Their only offence is that they speak in Bengali language which are often misunderstood by the concerned administration as persons belonging to neighbouring Bangladesh and treated as infiltrators," Chowdhury said in a letter to Modi.
Several parts of West Bengal have a majority Muslim population and share a border with Bangladesh. Communal tension is rising among communities in these areas as a result of such attacks elsewhere in the country, he said.
The Congress leader urged the prime minister to "sensitise all the state governments" against discrimination, violence, and persecution of migrant labourers from other parts of the country.
Following a fight over a "bidi," Jewel Rana, a 30-year-old migrant worker from the Jangipur region in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, was slain on Wednesday in Sambalpur, Odisha.
On suspicion of being undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, two migrant workers were also detained in Mumbai.
Additionally, the West Bengal Migrants Welfare Board reported that in ten months, it had received 1,143 complaints of harassment, particularly in states controlled by the BJP.
Published At: