Mamata hits BJP over harassment of Bengali migrants
The Statesman | 16 August 2025
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday reiterated her allegations that Bengali-speaking people were being harassed in the BJP-ruled states.
“Those who are trying to discriminate against Bengalis do have any idea of the language that icons like Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Kavi Nazrul Islam and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose spoke. Those who came as refugees to our country are now considered as citizens of our country. If there are illegal infiltrators, the Union government can take action against them, I have nothing to say on that. But there shouldn’t be unnecessary harassment of people just because they speak in Bengali,” the chief minister said while addressing a function to celebrate Kanyashree Day.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that she had received news that one person was not allowed to rent a room at a hotel in Noida just because he was speaking in Bengali.
“There is a necessity to learn the English language. But that does not mean that Bengali will be a forgotten language,” the chief minister said.
Reiterating her care for the people of Bengal and attacks and harassment on them, the chief minister said the people (Bengalis) will lay down their lives if attempts are made to wipe out Bengali language.
She was addressing a gathering to celebrate the Freedom at Midnight programme at Behala this evening.
In Maharashtra a person’s ear was chopped off after he spoke in Bengali language, she said, adding, “We respect all languages, their cultures and people. Those who attack people for speaking Bengali should remember that our National Anthem and National Song were written by Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and both were Bengalis.”
They should remember that Hemanta Mukherjee, Bimal Roy, Salil Chowdhury, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Bappi Lahiri, Arijit Singh and Jeet Ganguly were all Bengalis and they had enriched Hindi films and songs, she said.
“We are not going to allow them to take our right which we have achieved over the years. When the country got freedom, Mahatma Gandhi stayed in Kolkata to express his solidarity with the riot-hit people,” she added.
Criticising the BJP’s attempt to introduce NRC in the guise of SIR, she said: “I was first to detect that the voter list had been manipulated and the name of a voter from Maharashtra appeared with a voter from Bengal.”
She said: “I would like to make this point very clear that we will not spare them if the name of a genuine voter is deleted.”
Miss Banerjee said Bengal had played the leading role in the freedom movement. “Hundreds of Bengali youths laid down their lives to make India free. We believe in the synthesis of all religions and in unity in diversity. We will not tolerate any attempt to divide society.”
She urged the people to remain vigilant and ensure that their names have not been dropped from the voter’s list. “Let them delete the illegal voters but do not make any attempt to touch a genuine one. The consequence will be disastrous,” she remarked.
Earlier speaking at Dhono Dhanyo stadium, the chief minister said that currently over 93 lakh young women in West Bengal have benefited from the state government’s Kanyashree scheme. Our target is to ensure the figure crosses 1 crore soon,” the chief minister said.