Mamata asks migrants harassed in other States to return to West Bengal
'Tell us the date, and we will arrange trains just like we did during COVID. Even if we have only one roti, we will share half. We will create more schemes and give you work. We have held a meeting today itself and such a scheme is underway. Why will you stay in a place where you are not loved or respected? Come back to Bengal,' the Chief Minister said.
Earlier in the day during an administrative meeting Ms. Banerjee proposed to include migrant workers who returned to the state after 100 days of work under MGNREGA.
Launching 'language movement' against targetting of migrants in the BJP-ruled States. Ms. Banerjee walked a three kilometre stretch in Santiniketan Bolpur waving a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore.
'I am against divisive policies...Have we ever told any Hindi-speaking people to leave from here? But Bengali speakers are being harassed in Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, and Maharashtra. Would you like that? No. That is why you [Hindi speakers] are here with me. Raise your voice from your own community,' the Chief Minister said.
According to Ms. Banerjee said that there are 1.5 crore migrant workers in Bengal, there are 22 lakh workers from Bengal working outside. 'This torture on them must stop. If we can offer shelter to everyone, why can't you [BJP]?' Ms. Banerjee said.
After the protests rally the Chief Minister in her speech made repeated references to Bengali icons. 'Who showed the way in the freedom movement? The people of Bengal. Who wrote the national anthem?' she asked. She also vowed to continue her fight for the Bengali language. 'If necessary, I will give my life. I will not let anyone take away my language,' she said.
This was not the first time that the Trinamool Congress chairperson hit the streets in protests of targeting Bengali migrants and accusing the BJP of unleashing an attack on the Bengali language. Ms. Banerjee had on July 16 held a similar protest march in Kolkata and on July 21 during her party's Martyrs Day rally called for 'language movement'.
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