Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed deep shock over the alleged atrocities on Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states and the reported illegal “pushbacks” of Bengal citizens to Bangladesh, despite possessing valid identity documents.
Taking to her X handle, Banerjee condemned what she termed “linguistic terror” and said such actions would not be tolerated.
“Have been increasingly receiving reports of detentions of and atrocities on our Bengali-speaking people from different districts of West Bengal in Gurgaon, Haryana. West Bengal Police is receiving these reports from Haryana Police in the name of requests for identity searches,” Banerjee posted.
She added, “Have been separately and increasingly receiving reports from other states like Rajasthan etc., about illegal ‘pushbacks’ of West Bengal citizens with all proper documents to Bangladesh directly!! Our officers have received copies of their appropriate documents!
There are tortures and tortures on hapless poor Bengali workers from West Bengal in these states.”
Calling for an end to such attacks, Banerjee wrote: “I am shocked to see these terrible atrocities of double-engine governments on Bengalis in India. What do you want to prove? This is atrocious and terrible. We are not going to tolerate this. Stop this linguistic terror.”
Later in the day, speaking at the ‘Mahanayak Samman’ award ceremony on the death anniversary of matinee idol Uttam Kumar, Banerjee reiterated her concerns and emphasised the need to promote and protect the Bengali language and culture.
“Amidst the beautiful mosaic of different cultures in this country and the underlying message of unity in diversity, every state must cherish and protect its own spoken language and heritage. In Bengal, we must protect our language and culture while being respectful to other languages. The time has come for a language movement and we need to undertake programmes at all levels, as everybody is pained at these atrocities on Bengalis,” she said.
Trinamool Congress also reacted strongly on social media. In a post on X, the party said: “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. @BJP4India’s war on Bengalis is now naked, cruel, and unforgivable. In BJP-ruled Haryana, poor labourers from Chanchal, Malda were dragged out of their homes at midnight, paraded like criminals, and detained without cause. Their only ‘crime’? Being Bengali. This is a full-blown ethnic witch-hunt, engineered by @NayabSainiBJP’s @police_haryana and silently blessed by Delhi’s high command. This state-sponsored persecution will not go unanswered. Under Smt. @MamataOfficial and Shri @abhishekaitc, we’ve taken to the streets and the Parliament, and next, we will march to Delhi. If this continues, you will face a Bhasha Andolan the likes of which this nation has not seen.”
Earlier, on Monday, during the annual Martyr’s Day rally, Banerjee had invoked Bengali asmita (Bengali pride) as her central plank for the 2026 Bengal Assembly elections and announced the launch of a “Bhasha Andolan” (language movement) across the state from July 27. She warned that if linguistic profiling and attacks on Bengali-speaking people continue in BJP-ruled states, the movement would culminate in a major protest in Delhi.