Mamata cites NGO report to back claim of harassment of Bengalis in BJP-ruled states

Kolkata, July 26 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has cited findings of an NGO to support her allegation that Bengali-speaking people are harassed in the BJP-ruled states.

“The internationally reputed and New York-based multi-country NGO, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also now highlighted the issue of harassment, persecution, and illegal deportation of Bengali-speaking people of India by the BJP governments in various states,” the Chief Minister said in a statement on Saturday.

The Chief Minister claimed that the said NGO had released a report that substantiates Trinamool Congress' claims that Bengali-speaking Indians of different castes and communities were being arbitrarily abused and pushed out in a concerted manner by the BJP establishment.

Quoting Human Rights Watch's Asia Director, Elaine Pearson, Mamata Banerjee said, "The BJP is fuelling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengalis from the country, including Indian citizens. The authorities' claims that they are managing irregular migration are unconvincing. HRW reports that this has been happening systematically in the BJP-ruled States of Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Delhi, following a directive by the Ministry of Home, Government of India. Shame!! Now, even international human rights organisations have started taking note of the linguistic terrorism unleashed in India. This must stop at once!!"

Mamata Banerjee’s post came a couple of hours after BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, issued a social media statement expressing apprehension that Mamata Banerjee might raise her voice over the detention of 100 illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators by the Gurugram Police earlier in the day.

In the recent past, Mamata Banerjee had changed her political narrative from “Bengal in Danger” to “Bengalis in Danger”, repeatedly alleging targeted harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.

Earlier this week, she announced that Trinamool Congress will conduct weekend protest programmes throughout the state on this issue. She had described this agitation program as yet another “Bhasha Andolon (Language Movement).

The move, however, has drawn criticism. The original Bhasha Andolan was a historic movement in East Pakistan, demanding Bengali as an official language -- a struggle that eventually paved the way for Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.

BJP, however, has accused Mamata of misusing this sentiment to “shield illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators,” rather than protect “genuine Indian Bengalis.”

--IANS

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