Kolkata: Claiming that Bengali-speaking people from the state were being branded as Bangladeshis in some BJP-ruled states, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said this cannot be allowed.
Banerjee told reporters in her Assembly chamber that she has information that 300-400 Bengali-speaking migrant labourers were confined in a building in Rajasthan during the day despite showing valid documents.
“Is it a crime to speak in Bangla, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, among other luminaries? I think Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not aware of this development. I will draw his attention,” she said.
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. “It’s 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 the Bengali People. What’s happening is 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”.
