Sell land, rent out homes only to ‘Sanatanis’: BJP MP
Times of India | 6 May 2025
123 Kolkata: Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan on Monday asked people to sell land or rent out houses only to "Sanatanis", prompting a sharp backlash from Trinamool Congress, who said the BJP neta was "unaware of Bengal's tradition and culture". Khan, who led a rally in Bankura demanding the deportation of "Pakistanis" residing in India, said "Rohingya" would take over the properties after Sanatanis died.
"Do not sell land to anyone except Sanatanis and Hindus. Do not rent houses to anyone except Sanatanis," Khan said while submitting a deputation at the Bankura district magistrate's office. "I can say this in a democratic country like India as I am protecting the interests of Hindus."
"A lot of people in Bengal believe that their next generations will be able to stay in the houses they built for themselves. It is not true, and we saw that in Murshidabad. A shop owner, who allowed another person to set up a small shop on his premises, was the first one to be attacked. The beneficiary ransacked the shop. This is an eye-opener for us, and when we die, Rohingya will take over our homes," he said.
Khan continued: "Ninety percent of homes in Kolkata were taken over this way. To prevent this from being repeated in Bankura, I requested the people not to sell land or rent houses to anyone except Sanatanis." Clarifying further, he said: "I specifically asked people not to sell land or rent out a home to Rohingya from Bangladesh."
Trinamool condemned his statement immediately. "He does not know what Sanatani means. To borrow from their own, Dilip Ghosh already called Khan a halfwit," party spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar said. He added that if there was any infiltration from Pakistan, central govt and its agencies should be held responsible. "Any infiltrator will have to enter India after crossing the border. The border area is protected by central forces. They are actually pointing at their own mistakes," said Majumdar.
Trinamool Congress's Barjora MLA Alok Mukherjee said: "The MP is intimidating people openly, and that cannot be accepted."