West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that Bengali people in BJP-ruled states are being branded as Bangladeshis. Speaking to reporters from her assembly chamber, she said that 300-400 Bengali-speaking migrant labourers were confined in a building in Rajasthan during the day despite showing valid documents.
The TMC chief alleged that the BJP is “playing politics over language”. “Bengali is spoken in both West Bengal and Bangladesh, but West Bengal is a part of India. Similarly, Tamil is spoken both in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Why are people of Bengal being punished for speaking in their mother tongue?", said Mamata.
PTI sources in Nabanna, the State Secretariat of West Bengal informed that the confinement of 300-400 people on Tuesday, which the CM referred to took place in Bhiwadi of Rajasthan. Banerjee claimed that apart from Rajasthan, such incidents also took place in other BJP-ruled states including Delhi and Madhya Pradesh in the past.
“In Bengal too we have more than 1.5 crore people from other states. We never ask anyone to leave, we respect everyone, then why are such actions being taken against the people of Bengal”, Banerjee added.
Last week 7 cases surfaced where Bengali immigrants who were pushed into Bangladesh were allegedly brought back to India. “Its been more than a month since I wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah, that Bengali-speaking migrants are being targeted in different parts of the country despite possessing valid identification documents, I have received no response to that,” said TMC MP Samirul Islam, Chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board.
“More such cases are taking place every day. Recently, seven migrants were brought back from Bangladesh after being arrested by Mumbai Police and deported by the BSF. This is a conspiracy by the Bharatiya Janata Party against Bengal and Bengali People. What’s happening is absolutely unconstitutional and migrant workers are being deported just because they speak Bengali. We are trying to figure out and verify how many more such cases might have occurred," added Samirul Islam. On Tuesday the CM stated, “I am not sure whether PM Modi is aware of such actions being taken, but the actions are being taken by the BJP Party in BJP-ruled states”.
