CPI(M)'s Md Salim says SIR Electoral Roll revision will target marginalised people and strip democratic rights
'We have to accept that India is a multilingual country, the union government's tactic of one nation, one election, one language cannot work here. This attack on Bengalis across the country is an attack on the diversity, democracy, and unity of our country,' Mr Salim said. He also added that tagging all Bengali-speaking people as Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshis is a way to 'other' a certain class of people and attack them.
He alleged that Bharatiya Janta Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh supported organisations are putting various labels on Bengalis and pushing them out of BJP-ruled states, and sometimes outside India into Bangladesh, and in some cases, they are being tagged in the category of doubtful voters.
'We have a lot of partition refugees, these displaced Bengalis were given a place to stay in Andaman, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh during the partition crisis. How can they abuse the same people for speaking Bengali and call them Bangladeshis?' Mr Salim said while addressing a press conference in Kolkata. He also said that at some point, it will affect all communities, and not just Bengalis. He accused that once the Matua community was given cards to prove their identity, now the same government is attacking them in various BJP-ruled States.
Mr Salim said that the measure to revise the electoral voter list through the SIR is a measure to remove the marginalised people from the voter lists and take away their voting rights.
'Under SIR, everyone will have to prove their citizenship. Back in the day, in any democratic State, the government needed to prove a person's citizenship; now the onus is solely on the people,' Mr Salim said while responding to a question by The Hindu. He added that the magnitude at which the central government is planning to implement the SIR electoral roll revision will affect everyone. 'If it burns my house today, soon it will burn all other houses,' Mr Salim concluded.
War of words
West Bengal and its politicians have been engaging in a political war of words over the past few weeks after several cases of Bengali-speaking migrant workers being targeted in States like Odisha, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Chhatisgarh came to light.
On Wednesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit the streets in Kolkata to protest against the attack on Bengali migrants in various BJP-ruled States. The Trinamool Congress chairperson warned of dire consequences if targeting of Bengali migrants did not stop. 'The poor who go to work outside. They will be made to work and then sent to jail if they speak in Bengali. Why? What is your [BJP] right? Is West Bengal not in India? Why so much hatred against Bengalis,' Ms. Banerjee said.
The TMC leadership is raising the issue of attack on 'Bengali identity' along with the attack on migrants. The issue of Bengali identity and pride had helped the party tide over the BJP in the 2021 Assembly polls.
On the day, the TMC leader held a march to protest against the attack on migrants, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari met the State's Chief Electoral Officer demanding a thorough revision of the voter list in West Bengal in the same way that it is being implemented in Bihar.
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