Kolkata, June 16 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a scathing attack on the BJP in the Assembly, alleging that Bengali-speaking Indians were being wrongfully branded as illegal immigrants and deported.
She cited a recent incident in Maharashtra where three migrant workers from West Bengal were sent to Bangladesh allegedly for speaking Bengali.
"If someone speaks in Bengali, they are being called Bangladeshi. They are being deported to Bangladesh. Aren’t you ashamed? Even with Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and other identity documents, the BJP government in Maharashtra did this just because they spoke Bengali. I condemn them," Mamata said during her address in the assembly.
According to the West Bengal Migrant Workers Development Board, the three workers — two from Murshidabad and one from East Burdwan — were detained in Mumbai, suspected of being Bangladeshis, and deported without notifying the state administration.
The Board learned about the incident on June 10, and with the intervention of the state government and coordination with the Border Security Force (BSF), the workers were eventually brought back to India. Chairman of the Board and Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam had informed Mamata about the matter a day before her Assembly speech.
The Chief Minister also linked the incident to a broader pattern in BJP-ruled states like Maharashtra, Delhi, and Assam, where crackdowns on undocumented migrants have intensified.
“You must be ashamed that you are labelling bona fide Indian citizens as Bangladeshis just because of the language they speak. One should feel proud to speak in Bengali, as well as Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi. If you ask me, I can speak in all these languages,” she said.
She further alleged that citizens with valid identification — voter IDs, Aadhaar, PAN — are being denied livelihoods in BJP-ruled states. “On one hand, you are branding Indians as Bangladeshis for their language, and on the other, you are depriving these people… of the right to earn their livelihood in your states,” she said, triggering strong protests from BJP legislators.
Despite the uproar, Banerjee continued her criticism of the Centre, accusing it of withholding Central funds from Bengal. She highlighted developmental achievements like laying 69,000 km of roads under Pathashree and allocating Rs 11,000 crore for Awas Yojana, claiming Bengal has topped rural infrastructure rankings multiple times. She said the state created 1.5 crore mandays and provided an average of 50 days of employment per worker despite financial constraints.
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