Ministers Chandrima Bhattacharya and Dr Shashi Panja held a press conference today on the atrocities being meted out to Birbhum residents Sunali Khatun and her family in Bangladesh and the ‘anti-Bengal sentiments’ of the Centre.
They said that justice has prevailed, in spite of the desperate attempts by the Bangla-birodhi zamindars, who tried to brand a pregnant Bengali woman as a foreigner, Sunali Khatun has returned home to Bengal. BJP’s entire project of humiliation has collapsed. They misused power, flouted procedure, and threw a pregnant woman into uncertainty, but the truth has defeated their lies.
The so-called ‘identity verification drive’ is nothing but a politically motivated witch-hunt. How can anyone be deported on the basis of mere “suspicion”? How can any government justify dragging out a pregnant woman, blindfolding her, and pushing her family across an international border in the middle of the night? This was a deliberate act of cruelty. They were even threatened with being shot if they dared to return, which clearly is state-sponsored terror.
The Calcutta High Court said in clear and unambiguous terms that “the Centre acted in hot haste and violated due process.” The high court exposed every illegal step taken by the BJP-led Centre. The deportation order has been voided and thrown into the dustbin of history. If this is the quality of the Centre’s verification process, then the entire exercise stands discredited
The ministers said that Sunali’s family produced Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, land deeds from 1952, birth certificates, and documents proving the family’s presence in Bengal for generations. Villagers confirmed it. Even the names of Sunali’s parents are on the 2002 Bengal voter rolls, as per the data available on CEO West Bengal portal. If these documents are not accepted, what exactly is the Centre looking for? What more proof is needed? Delhi Police even fabricated data to claim Sunali entered India in 1998 despite her being born in 2000. This is not an error, this is a conspiracy, alleged TMC leaders.
“Tripura has 831 kilometres of fenced border out of 857 kilometres, yet infiltration continues under BJP rule. The BJP controls the state. The BJP controls the police. The BJP controls the local machinery. The BJP controls the border. Yet, they have zero answers. Instead they point fingers at Bengal because they think Bengal can be intimidated,” said TMC.