Tortured migrants to be at forefront of Trinamool rally
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Kolkata: Uttam Brajabashi, the 50-year-old Rajbongshi from Cooch Behar's Dinhata, arrived at Sealdah station on Sunday morning to be a part of Trinamool Congress's Martyrs' Day rally.
With several hundred party supporters backing him, the soft-spoken Brajabashi questioned why, having spent his lifetime in Cooch Behar, he was slapped with an NRC notice by an Assam Foreigners Tribunal, accusing him of illegally entering India from Bangladesh even before he was born.
Later, speaking to reporters, Brajabashi said, "I have never been to Assam. I was born in 1975, and my age is now 50. I do not have any birth certificate.
I went to Guwahati with a lawyer to attend the foreigners tribunal meeting. I have spoken to a Trinamool neta who said that they were behind me to give me support."
Like Brajabashi, several migrants who worked in other states also started reaching Kolkata to attend the Trinamool rally. These people, mostly from Malda and Murshidabad, who are now in Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra and Gitanjali Stadium, may have otherwise chosen to stay back home, but the issue of Bengali-speaking migrants being harassed in other states brought them to Kolkata. They said they wanted to hear out CM
Mamata Banerjee
on this.
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At Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra, Tanbir Alam from Malda said his maternal uncle, who is working in Jaipur right now, faced problems as police asked him to show evidence that he is Indian. "On Saturday, he called us saying that the police asked them to show their citizenship card. He was clueless and showed his Aadhaar card, but it was not accepted. Now he has asked for help so that he could get a certificate from the local police station to show as evidence.
" He stated that an initiative has been taken up for preparing specific cards that could be used as evidence.
Shakil Sheikh, who works as a construction labourer in Delhi, said, "We haven't faced any harassment yet, but that doesn't mean that I will be safe in the future. I have all the identity proofs like those who are being harassed for speaking Bengali and being tagged as Bangladeshi. My question is how do I prove that I am an Indian citizen if my valid identities are being challenged in other states? We are poor villagers who work as migrant labourers in other states to earn money.
"
Abdul Zalil, who is a student and whose family members travel to other states to earn money, said, "We are citizens of this country. We learned since our childhood that we are together and that different castes, creeds, and religions stay together, so why this discrimination? Why is a section trying to divide us based only on religious identities and mother tongue? The CM has already taken this matter seriously, and we are waiting to hear her address.
"
At Gitanjali Stadium, Malda's Manirul Sk said, "I go to various places, including Jaipur and Delhi, where I work in sewing, but the recent incidents faced by several migrant labourers are very scary. I appeal to Didi to do something so that we can move to any part of the country and work freely without fear."
Sundor Bhuiya from Malda, who works as a construction labourer in Delhi, expressed his concern if he could go there without fear in future. "Many from our district travel to Delhi and other parts of the country as construction labourers. We want Didi to take action so that we do not face such harassment again."
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