Mahua Moitra Writes to UN Over 'Exclusion' of Muslim Officers During Amit Shah's Bengal Visits

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra approached the United Nations special rapporteur on minority issues, alleging that senior Muslim IAS and IPS officers in West Bengal were "deliberately excluded" from official meetings and protocol duties during the Union home minister Amit Shah’s visits to the state in July and August.

Moitra, who represents Krishnanagar in the Lok Sabha, wrote to Nicolas Levrat, the UN special rapporteur on minority issues, on September 16. She later shared the letter, written on her official parliamentary letterhead, on X.

The MP alleged that three senior officers, Syed Waquar Raza, IPS; Jawed Shamim, IPS; and Khalil Ahmed, IAS, were either asked to leave meetings or instructed not to attend events connected with Shah’s visits because of their religious identity.

“The one factor these three officers share, and the one factor that sets them apart from the colleagues who were permitted to remain, is their religion,” Moitra wrote.

According to Moitra, the first alleged incident occurred during a border-security review in Siliguri on July 18. She claimed that Raza, the commissioner of the Siliguri Police Commissionerate, was asked by director-general and inspector-general of police Siddh Nath Gupta to leave the meeting.

Moitra further alleged that Raza was excluded from the arrangements to receive and see off Shah, with Sukesh Kumar Jain, inspector-general of police for North Bengal, assigned the responsibilities instead.

" No reason was communicated to any of these officers on any of these occasions. In two instances, the officers had already arrived at the venue before being asked to leave, which makes it difficult to attribute their exclusion to an oversight in the list of invitees," she said.

She claimed that Shamim, director-general of police for the Special Task Force, was also asked not to attend the Siliguri meeting. The STF was represented by his subordinate, inspector-general Gaurav Sharma.

Moitra alleged that a similar incident occurred at a law-and-order and disaster-preparedness meeting chaired by Shah in Kolkata on July 19. According to her letter, Ahmed, additional chief secretary for fire and emergency services, was asked to leave after reaching the venue. Shamim was also allegedly denied entry, while Sharma represented the STF.

The MP claimed the pattern continued during Shah’s second Bengal visit. At another border-security review in Siliguri on August 20, Raza was allegedly told not to attend. Jain and Darjeeling district magistrate Harishanker Panicker were instead deputed to receive and see off the home minister.

Shamim was also allegedly barred from attending an exhibition on the new criminal laws, with Sharma again representing the STF, Moitra claimed.

In her letter, Moitra argued that the alleged exclusions breached provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Articles 14, 15, 16, 21 and 25 of the Indian Constitution.

She urged the UN rapporteur to seek an explanation from the Narendra Modi government and called for the preservation of CCTV footage, tour diaries and other official records connected with Shah’s visits from July 17 to 19 and August 20 to 22.

Moitra said the allegations carried wider implications because the Union home ministry oversees security and intelligence agencies, including the BSF, SSB, CRPF and Intelligence Bureau.

Citing the 2011 Census, she noted that Muslims constituted 27.01 per cent of West Bengal’s population, or about 2.47 crore people. She argued that perceived religious discrimination within the security establishment could weaken minority confidence in law-enforcement agencies and increase fears of profiling and discriminatory treatment.