Amartya Sen defended the constitutional right of all Indian citizens to move freely and speak any language across the country.
He condemned the alleged harassment of Bengali migrant workers, emphasising it's a national concern, not just Bengal's.
The issue has sparked a political clash, with TMC accusing BJP of targeting Bengali Muslims, while BJP calls it an election-driven agenda.
Concerning the ongoing eviction row due to which many Bengali migrant labourers are being forcefully displaced, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen said every citizen of India has the freedom to go wherever they want, and any effort to curb that must be objected to.
Speaking to reporters at his ancestral home in Santiniketan, Sen said it doesn't matter whether a person is a Bengali, Punjabi or a Marwari. The freedom to go wherever he wants and speak whichever language he wants is his constitutional right.
"An Indian citizen has the right of movement in the entire country. There is no mention of territorial rights anywhere in our Constitution," he said.
"Every citizen of India has the right to be happy. We have to respect everyone....It is not a question of Bengal alone, but the whole country," he said on Thursday, responding to a question from reporters on the issue of political tensions over the alleged harassment of Bengali migrant workers in other parts of the country.
Sen said if Bengalis are being tortured and neglected, it must be objected to.
"The language that was integrated with 'Charyapad' (Bangla), its value must be acknowledged. Various poems have been written in that language. The messages of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam have been laid out very clearly in their works. These values must be acknowledged," he said.
The TMC has been raising its voice over the last one month, alleging that Bengali-speaking people, especially poor Muslim migrant workers, are being harassed in BJP-ruled states and being branded illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has led a mega rally in Kolkata over the issue last month, and also started 'Bhasa Andolan', sharpening her attack on the BJP.
“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,” Samirul Islam, Birbhum MP and Chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Workers Welfare Board has earlier said.
The BJP, on the other hand, has dismissed the allegations, claiming that the TMC did not think about the welfare of migrant workers over the last 14 years, and was now raising the issue with an eye on next year's assembly elections in the state.
