Mamata Banerjee Claims Bengal Migrants Being Deported, Slams BJP: ‘They're Not Bangladeshis'
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Mamata Banerjee slammed the BJP over the alleged deportation of Bengali migrant workers from BJP-ruled states to Bangladesh.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the Bengali people from the state were being branded as Bangladeshis in some BJP-ruled states and were pushed to the neighbouring country.
She claimed that migrant workers from Bengal are taken to other states due to their skills and then sent to Bangladesh for speaking the Bengali language.
'People from every section live in our country. This is India's secular tradition… but the BJP is doing politics based on language… The migrant workers from Bengal are taken to other states for work because of their skills, but when they speak in the Bengali language among themselves, they are labelled as Bangladeshis and sent to Bangladesh," she claimed while speaking to reporters in her Assembly chamber.
#WATCH | Kolkata: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee says, 'People from every section live in our country. This is India's secular tradition… but the BJP is doing politics based on language… The migrant workers from Bengal are taken to other states for work because of their… pic.twitter.com/lrfuL973WR — ANI (@ANI) June 24, 2025
The Chief Minister claimed that several such cases were reported to her government, which brought the deportees back from Bangladesh.
'Many such cases have come to us, and we have brought them back (from Bangladesh). Another such case has come from Rajasthan, where 300 to 400 people have been labelled as Bangladeshis. What is happening? They are not Bangladeshis, they have their own identity, they are residents of West Bengal, and West Bengal is a state of India," she said.
She also claimed that besides Rajasthan, such incidents were also reported in BJP-ruled Delhi and Madhya Pradesh in the past.
'Only for speaking Bengali, people are pushed to Bangladesh. Tamil is spoken by people in Tamil Nadu. So, will someone be sent to Sri Lanka because they speak Tamil? Nepali is the language spoken by the Gorkhas, the people of Darjeeling. Will they be sent to Nepal?" Mamata said.
She said that 1.5 crore migrant workers from different states are working in different units in West Bengal.
'But we can never imagine taking such steps which go against the spirit of pluralism of India. What if such steps are taken against migrants from other states here for speaking their mother tongue? Is speaking Bengali considered sacrilegious by BJP-ruled regimes?" she asked.
First Published:
June 24, 2025, 20:30 IST
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