Mamata condemns ‘detention of 300–400 Bengali-speaking migrants’ in Rajasthan

Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday strongly condemned the detention of 300 to 400 migrant workers from Bengal, in Rajasthan, allegedly branded as “Bangladeshi” for speaking in the Bengali language.

“Have information that 300-400 Bengali-speaking migrant labourers were confined in a building in Rajasthan during the day despite showing valid documents,” she said.

Expressing outrage over the incident in the state Assembly on Tuesday, Banerjee said that she would bring this matter to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Banerjee said that she asked Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to immediately speak with his Rajasthan counterpart regarding the detention of the workers.

“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 but I will ensure he gets to know.” Banerjee said.

Accusing the BJP of ‘playing politics’ over language, she said: “What is happening here? India is a diverse country where people speak many languages. These people are residents of West Bengal and Bengal is a state of India. They have valid identity documents. Yet they are being treated as foreigners and deported or jailed. This is unacceptable. Just because someone speaks Bengali, does that make them Bangladeshi? Many people in Bangladesh speak Bengali and so do people in West Bengal, it is our mother tongue. How can you equate a language with nationality?”

Claiming that apart from Rajasthan, such incidents also took place in BJP-ruled Delhi and Madhya Pradesh in the past, Banerjee who is the chairperson of Trinamool Congress said: “This is not an isolated case. We have received multiple complaints like this in recent times and we are already investigating them. Today again, we got a similar report. People from Bengal go to other states to work because of their skills and diligence. Now they are being targeted for simply speaking in Bengali.”

Banerjee said that around 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal are currently employed in other states while 1.5 crore migrant workers from different states are employed in different units in Bengal.

“We can never imagine taking such steps which go against the spirit of pluralism of India. What if such steps are taken against migrants from other states here for speaking their mother tongue? Is speaking Bengali considered sacrilegious by BJP-ruled regimes? Is the Union Home Ministry under Amit Shah unaware of this witch-hunt against Bengali-speaking migrants?” she questioned.

When questioned about alleged atrocities against Dalits in BJP-ruled states, she said, “This is very unfortunate that minorities and Dalits are being attacked. They (the Centre) dispatch 10 commissions whenever any stray incident is alleged in Bengal. But the Centre remains silent when attacks on Dalits, women and minorities take place regularly in states ruled by their people (BJP),” she added.

Banerjee reiterated that she met the Bangladeshi High Commissioner at Nabanna on Monday ensuring that the latter has the necessary clearance from the Centre. Referring to border issues, she stated: “Pushbacks are not happening from Bangladesh’s side but from India’s. I want peace, but if something untoward happens tomorrow, who will take responsibility?”