New Delhi, 30 June

All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MP Samirul Islam on Monday alleged that Bengali-speaking migrant workers are facing persecution in BJP-ruled states, and being branded as "Bangladeshis".

"The persecution of Bengali-speaking migrant workers continues unabated in BJP-ruled states. Despite possessing valid documents, many poor workers from Bengal are being wrongly branded as Bangladeshis. They are being harassed in every possible way - including illegal detention and forcible pushback across the border into Bangladesh," the AITC MP said in a post on X.

He questioned how Indian citizens can be treated in this manner.

"These migrant workers are being detained without any police records. Authorities are not even contacting the state government to verify their citizenship. What, then, is the motive of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah?" said Islam.

"Do they intend to punish Bengal in this illegal way - bypassing all Indian laws, simply because they failed to win the state electorally?" he said.

The AITC MP also said that if any infiltration had taken place, the responsibility lied with the BSF.

"So why are poor Bengali citizens being targeted in such an undemocratic manner?" he said.

He also alleged that Bengali-speaking migrants were being detained for more than 24 hours without being produced before any court.

"Which law allows them to do so? Even police of those states are refusing to accept genuine Aadhar Card, EPIC and ration cards as identity proofs," he said.

The AITC Rajya Sabha MP alleged people are facing "an unprecedented brutality for speaking in Bengali-which was spoken by polymaths and patriots like Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and many others."

He added that West Bengal will not remain silent, and said, "Under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, we will not allow the voices of the poor to be crushed simply because they speak Bengali. We will fight this battle - and we will fight it on our terms".

AITC and other opposition parties have raised the issue of "Bengali-speaking migrants facing the brunt" as states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi, among others, have said they are cracking down on illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Last week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had told the media that she had information that 300-400 Bengali-speaking migrant labourers were allegedly confined in a building in Rajasthan during the day despite showing valid documents.

Earlier this month, seven migrant workers, including a woman from West Bengal, who were wrongly apprehended on suspicion of being Bangladeshis and subsequently pushed back through the Indo-Bangla border, were repatriated after their Indian citizenship was verified.