In the wake of a string of suicide incidents in West Bengal allegedly over the implementation of SIR in the state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday urged people not to take any extreme step and assured that not a single legitimate citizen would be deported.
In a post on X, the TMC supremo said, “I appeal to every citizen: Do not be provoked, do not lose faith. Do not take any extreme step. Our Maa-Mati-Manush Sarkar stands with you. We will not allow the NRC to be implemented in Bengal – neither through the front door, nor through the back door. We will not permit a single legitimate citizen to be branded an “outsider.” Until the last drop of our blood, we will fight to protect the rights of the people and to defeat the BJP and their allies’ nefarious agenda to tear apart the social fabric of our nation.”
The chief minister’s post came in the wake of the second case of suicide in as many days, allegedly linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that is set to begin in West Bengal from November 4.
On Thursday, 95-year-old Kshitij Majumdar was found hanging at his daughter’s residence in Birbhum district. His family claimed that he was afraid of getting deported to Bangladesh following the SIR, as he had moved to India from Bangladesh at a very early age. Police, however, said that they have not found any suicide note that would link the death to the panic over the SIR.
On Wednesday, 70-year-old farmer Khairul Sheikh allegedly tried to kill himself in Cooch Behar, fearing that his name would be deleted from the voters’ list due to a spelling error in his name in the official documents.
On Tuesday, 57-year-old Pradeep Kar was found hanging at his residence. A note in his diary stated that the NRC (National Register of Citizens) was “responsible”. While Kar was born and brought up in West Bengal, his father had come to India from Bangladesh nearly six decades ago.
“We are witnessing the tragic consequences of the BJP’s politics of fear, division, and hate. Within 72 hours of the Election Commission’s announcement of the SIR exercise in Bengal – an exercise bulldozed through at the BJP’s behest. One avoidable tragedy after another has occurred,” the chief minister said in a post on Thursday.
“Who will answer for these avoidable, politically inflicted tragedies? Will the Home Minister (Amit Shah) accept responsibility? Will the BJP and its allies, under whose watch this fear psychosis has spread, find the courage to speak out? A 95-year-old man, who has given his life to this soil, is forced to die to prove he belongs to it. What could be a deeper wound on the nation’s conscience? This is not just a tragedy; it is a betrayal of humanity itself. For generations, the people of Bengal have lived with dignity. Today, they are being forced to ask whether they still belong to the land of their birth. This cruelty is unconscionable and must not be allowed to stand,” she added.
The ruling TMC in West Bengal has been opposing the “hasty implementation” of SIR ahead of the Assembly elections in the state due early next year, and has called it the “backdoor” way of implementing NRC, which is currently being conducted in neighbouring Assam.
On Wednesday, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee met the family of 57-year-old Pradeep Kar, who had held the NRC (National Register of Citizens) responsible for his death in his alleged suicide note.
Holding the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar responsible for the suicide of Kar, the TMC MP said: “Kar died due to anxiety over the NRC and SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of electoral rolls created by the BJP and the Election Commission. An FIR should be filed against Shah and Kumar. They are responsible for the climate of panic.”
Meanwhile, BJP leader Amit Malviya accused the chief minister of peddling “blatant lies” over the suicides.
“…She (Mamata Banerjee) shamelessly tried to link the death of a 57-year-old man in Panihati with the NRC. Now, she has outdone herself by stooping to an abysmal new low! This time, she is politicising the death of a 95-year-old man in Birbhum by falsely connecting it with fears of SIR and NRC,” Malviya wrote.
“The truth is, it is not SIR but Mamata Banerjee’s corrupt and crumbling administration that has blood on its hands,” he added.