Faced with BJP attacks, how TMC has mobilised to defend Bengali migrant workers

Indian Express

15 hours ago

At a time when the BJP is attempting to corner the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in Bengal over the issue of undocumented immigration from Bangladesh, accusing it of turning a blind eye to the alleged problem because of electoral compulsions, the Mamata Banerjee-led party has attempted to counter by raising the issue of alleged mistreatment of Bengali migrant labourers in other states such as Odisha, Delhi, and Assam.
On Wednesday, Banerjee will lead a rally in Kolkata in protest against the 'humiliation' of Bengali migrant workers. Her party believes the issue can have broad resonance, given the huge number of people from Bengal engaged in informal work outside the state. The TMC believes this strategy will once again help it impress upon the electorate that the BJP is a party of 'bohiragatos (outsiders)' that does not have the interests of Bengali migrants at heart and is more concerned about polarising the political atmosphere by stoking fears about undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.
'This high-pitched campaign not only spread the message that the BJP is anti-Bengali and cannot rule Bengal, but also sends a message to migrant workers … There are at least 50 lakh migrants from our state, and a majority of them are from the minority community. Our campaign will give them the message that only TMC is standing behind them,' said a senior TMC leader.
The campaign has picked up following a series of incidents faced by Bengali migrants in other states. On July 11, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, who has been conducting deportation drives, set off a row when he said those who identified Bengali as their mother tongue in the 2011 Census could be from Bangladesh.
'… In Assam, Assamese is permanent — both as the state and official language. However, if they write Bengali in the Census, it will only quantify the number of foreigners in the state,' he told reporters in Guwahati.
A few days earlier, on July 7, the Odisha Police detained 444 migrant workers in Jharsuguda district on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. The migrants were from districts in West Bengal such as Nadia, Murshidabad, Malda, Purba Medinipur, Birbhum, Purba Bardhaman, and South 24 Parganas. Around 50 were later released, some after furnishing additional documentation.
The following day (July 8), electricity and water supply were cut off in Delhi's Bengali-dominated Jai Hind Colony. This was based on a civil court's direction in May after allegations of power theft came to light.
Banerjee and the rest of the TMC leadership have taken a strong stance against each of these incidents. Targeting Sarma, the ruling party in Bengal said in an X post that he 'was spewing venom through his statements'.
It added, 'Where does this hatred stem from? Why this contempt for Bengalis and Bangla? Is it because the BJP was humiliated and rejected by the people of Bengal? If this is how you plan to capture Bengal, through HATE, BIGOTRY, and XENOPHOBIA, we pity you. The people of Bengal will not just reject you again, they will do so with an even bigger mandate. Mark our words.'
On the Delhi incident, the CM said that a 'forced eviction is currently underway' in the colony. 'Speaking Bengali does not make one a Bangladeshi… Having failed in their attempts to deprive Bengalis in West Bengal, the BJP is now exporting their Bangla-Birodhi (anti-Bengali) agenda to other parts of the country in a strategic and systematic manner,' she said.
On Monday, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghosh held a protest at the colony. The TMC's Krishnanagar MP, Mahua Moitra, has also echoed the CM in her response to the Odisha issue. She said such incidents had never occurred in '23 years of Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government'. 'Since the BJP came to power (in Odisha), this has become a daily occurrence,' she said.
Moitra said, 'Fifty per cent of Odisha's tourism revenue comes from Bengali tourists. They are the ones who stay in your hotels, eat at your restaurants, visit your pilgrimage sites. What if Bengali tourists stop going to Odisha?'
BJP's response
Faced with the TMC marshalling its leaders and workers on the issue, the state BJP has looked to stand its ground. Newly elected Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya alleged that in the Odisha case, 335 of the 444 detained had 'fake documents issued by the TMC'.
'The TMC is flooding India with Bangladeshi infiltrators, who work in other states but return to Bengal just to vote for Mamata Banerjee. Every state must be extremely cautious while hiring labour or employees carrying fake Bengal-issued documents. This is not just a demographic threat, it's a national security concern,' he said.
Countering this, the TMC wrote on X that a 'section of the BJP was carrying out a misinformation campaign'. 'If they are 'Bangladeshis', let the Odisha government present documentary proof,' said the party. It called on the BJP to stop 'criminalising an entire community just because they speak Bengali'.
Last Friday, the Calcutta High Court sought a detailed report regarding allegations that migrant workers from West Bengal had been detained in Delhi and sent to Bangladesh. 'Have workers belonging to West Bengal been detained from Delhi and sent to Bangladesh?' the court asked. It instructed Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to liaise with his Delhi counterpart and submit a comprehensive report on the matter.
As per sources, on June 18, six Bengali-speaking people were detained by the Rohini police in Delhi and taken to the N Katju police station. On Saturday, the TMC continued to ramp up its rhetoric on the topic, writing on X that the BJP was on a mission to 'strip our people of dignity, rights, and shelter' and would render them 'stateless' if it came to power in 2026,