CM: Bengalis facing targeted persecution in BJP-run states
Times of India | 28 December 2025
Kolkata: CM Mamata Banerjee on Saturday launched a blistering attack on BJP, three days after the lynching of a young migrant worker from Murshidabad in Odisha, calling the lynching part of a wider pattern of targeted persecution of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-governed states.
"We strongly condemn the brutal oppression and persecution that has descended upon Bengali-speaking people in every BJP-governed state," Banerjee posted on X, asserting that language and identity were being weaponised against migrant workers. "We stand by those oppressed, terrified, and tortured migrant Bengali-speaking families, and we will provide all kinds of support to those families," she said.
Her remarks came in the wake of the killing of 20-year-old Juel Rana, a resident of Suti in Murshidabad's Jangipur subdivision, who travelled to Sambalpur in Odisha to work as a mason — his first job outside Bengal.
On the night of Dec 24, Rana was allegedly lynched by a mob that accused him of being an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant. Two other colleagues of Rana from Bengal were assaulted and remain in critical condition.
According to the complaint filed by Rana's mother, a group of seven to eight local men surrounded her son and his colleagues near their place of residence, accused them of being Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis, and beat them up with sticks, iron rods and other sharp weapons. Rana died on the spot.
The CM described the incident as "extremely unfortunate", and pointed to what she called was a growing climate of fear forcing migrant workers to flee BJP-governed states. "Migrant workers in Murshidabad are returning home terrified," she said. She added that while money could not compensate for human lives, the Bengal govt remains committed to economic compensation in cases where deaths have occurred.
Taking aim at the narrative behind the violence, Banerjee asserted, "Speaking the Bengali language cannot be a crime." She said the Bengal Police has already registered a zero FIR at Suti police station in connection with Rana's death and that a police team from the state has gone to Odisha for the investigation.
Police in Odisha have confirmed the arrest of six accused in the case. But the CM made it clear that accountability could not end with arrests alone.