BJP agenda to brand Bengalis B'deshis: TMC
2
Kolkata: Trinamool on Saturday strongly protested Assam CM
Himanta Biswa Sarma
's statement about the picking of Bengali as mother tongue in census documents and said it was BJP's agenda to brand Bengalis Bangladeshis, declare them stateless and dump them in detention camps.
Sarma had said on Thursday that the number of people mentioning Bengali as their mother tongue would help quantify foreigners living in Assam. In response, Trinamool said, "It is disgraceful that people of a state in the Indian union are being subjected to such hate and xenophobia by public representatives themselves."
Trinamool, in a statement on X, said, "BJP is baying for the blood of Bengalis everywhere. First, the Assam govt issued NRC notice to a legitimate citizen who has lived in Cooch Behar for over 50 years. And when that sinister attempt was thwarted, Himanta Biswa Sarma now spews venom by claiming that 'writing Bengali as mother tongue in census documents will quantify the number of foreigners in Assam'." The party asked: "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?"
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"BJP is simply trying to erase the distinction between 'Bengali' and 'Bangladeshi'.
This is all part of BJP's agenda to brand Bengalis as Bangladeshis, declare them stateless, and dump them in detention camps. But let it be known that we will never allow our people to become foreigners in their own land," TMC said.
"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," it added.
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The Assam CM's comments were a reaction to a statement by All BTC Minority Students' Union's Mainuddin Ali. Ali threatened that all Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam would stop mentioning Assamese as their mother tongue in census documents, thereby making the people speaking the state language a minority.
"Language cannot be used as a tool for blackmail. In Assam, Assamese is permanent — both as state and official language.
However, if they write Bengali in the census, it will only quantify the number of foreigners in the state," Sarma had told reporters.
"Let's remind him (Sarma): our National Anthem is in Bengali. Our National Song is in Bengali. So when Himanta sings 'Jana Gana Mana' or 'Vande Mataram', does he automatically become an illegal Bangladeshi? By his own twisted logic, shouldn't his citizenship now be questioned?" TMC said on X.
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