The BJP on Thursday alleged that Mamata Banerjee and her cabinet colleague Udayan Guha had built a false narrative on the NRC (National Register of Citizens) in Bengal by intimidating Uttam Kumar Brajabashi, a Cooch Behar farmer.
Brajabashi, a 50-year-old Rajbanshi farmer, received a notice from a foreigners’ tribunal in Assam’s Kamrup district, asking him to prove his citizenship. The tribunal claimed that he had entered Assam without proper documents and was “suspected to be a foreigner or infiltrator” by the Assam authorities.
The chief minister said that although Brajabashi had furnished "valid identity documents, he is being harassed on suspicion of being a “foreigner/illegal migrant”.
On Thursday, Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT cell head, wrote on X: “This is brutal reality behind Mamata Banerjee’s NRC drama. She weaponises the pain of marginalized communities for vote-bank politics, while her government uses threats and forgery to build false narratives (sic).”
Brajabashi is from Sadiyaler Kuthi in Dinhata.
Mamata had said on Tuesday that the notice to Brajabashi proved that the BJP dispensation in Assam “is attempting to implement NRC in Bengal, where it holds no power or jurisdiction”.
“A premeditated attempt is being made to intimidate, disenfranchise, and target marginalised communities. This unconstitutional overreach is anti-people and exposes BJP’s dangerous agenda of bulldozing democratic safeguards and erasing the identity of Bengal’s people,” Mamata added.
On Thursday, Malviya came up with a counterclaim.
“West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is deliberately lying on the Uttam Brajabashi issue!,” the BJP leader wrote, alleging that Udayan Guha, the Dinhata MLA and the north Bengal development minister, had “intimidated” the farmer’s family.
Malviya said the family had been taken to the local BDO office and made to “sign some documents” allegedly under instructions from Guha. “Udayan Guha warned them to never visit Assam again,” wrote Malviya.
He said Mamata had created the “false narrative”, knowing well that the Assam government had withdrawn all cases against Kochs and Rajbanshis through a circular in April.
He said the Assam government had issued a statement, saying all NRC cases against Rajbanshis would be withdrawn and eventually, the cases were withdrawn.
Rajbanshis mostly voted for the BJP in the recent elections and the party is desperate to dispel the notion that the NRC will be detrimental to the interests of the community.
Of 54 Assembly constituencies in north Bengal, 24 are dominated by Rajbanshis. Currently, the BJP has 19 MLAs and Trinamool has five in Rajbanshi-dominated areas.
Minister Guha has reacted to Malviya’s post. “They (the BJP) are making senseless comments. It was the Assam government (where the BJP is in power) that served a notice on him, and I had no role in it,” he said.
“When we learned about it, we voiced our protests and supported the family. The BJP is trying to conceal the issue that an Indian, who lives in Bengal, was served the NRC notice,” Guha added.
Brajabashi on Thursday attended a meeting hosted by Guha in Dinhata to discuss preparations for the Trinamool Congress's Martyrs' Day rally in Calcutta on July 21. Sources in Trinamool said Brajabashi might take part in the Calcutta rally.
Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar