The Trinamool Congress has called for a mega march in Calcutta and protest rallies across Bengal on July 16 against the alleged atrocities on Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states — an issue that Mamata Banerjee is keen to escalate in the run-up to next year’s state elections.
Mamata will participate in the nearly 2km protest march between College Square and Dorina Crossing in Calcutta, where she is expected to amplify the anti-Bengali narrative against the BJP.
A source in the Trinamool said the protest rally — just five days before the July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally — is significant, as the party has been prioritising the issue of alleged torture of Bengali migrant workers, positioning it more sharply against the BJP than the “outsider” narrative used during the 2021 Assembly polls.
“Our chief minister has repeatedly condemned the atrocities committed against Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states like Odisha and Delhi. Now the state will witness a massive protest on the streets against such torture. Our chief minister will lead the march in Calcutta on July 16, while all districts — including organisational units — have been instructed to take to the streets on the same day,” said minister Chandrima Bhattacharya during a news conference at Trinamool Bhavan.
Since last month, allegations of unlawful detention of migrant workers have become a major talking point in Bengal politics, with illegal deportation of some workers to Bangladesh on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals. Mamata, during the monsoon session of the Assembly, made it clear that her party would not tolerate it.
A source in the state government said that over the past month, at least 600 migrant workers from various districts of Bengal have been detained in BJP-ruled states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, and Odisha. So far, the Bengal government has ensured the return of seven migrant workers who were allegedly deported to Bangladesh on the suspicion of their being Bangladeshi nationals.
After a recent case involving the alleged deportation of six individuals from Birbhum, the party supported their families in filing two separate habeas corpus petitions in the Calcutta High Court against the Delhi police, who allegedly detained and deported them.
Trinamool has also accused the BJP-ruled Assam government of excluding Bengali-speaking people from north Bengal from the NRC.
The issue came to light after a Cooch Behar resident, Uttam Kumar Brajabasi — a member of the Rajbanshi community — received a notice from an Assam Foreigners’ Tribunal asking him to prove his citizenship, as he had been marked as an infiltrator or foreigner.
On Sunday, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam cited the case of Arati Ghosh, 52, a resident of Jhaukuthi village in Cooch Behar’s Boxirhat. Arati had married a person from Assam but had to return to her ancestral home in Bengal in 2019 after her NRC application was rejected by the Assam government. Her husband, Manoj Kanti Gope, also left his ancestral home in Assam and is currently in Bengal with their daughter.
“I panicked after my NRC application was rejected twice,” said Arati, explaining her decision to live in Bengal.
“The plight of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states like Maharashtra, Odisha, and Delhi, along with the experiences of many women like Arati Ghosh who were denied citizenship in Assam, proves that the BJP’s policies are consistently anti-Bengali. Led by our chief minister Mamata Banerjee, we will fight against the anti-Bengali BJP till our last breath,” said Islam.
Samik Bhattacharya, the BJP’s state president, strongly criticised the TMC’s move to build a narrative against his party. He accused Trinamool of playing the anti-Bengali card which, he said, was causing harassment for genuine Indian citizens working in other states. “Detect and deport — this is our stated policy to identify infiltrators and send them back to their country of origin. Not only BJP-ruled states but even non-BJP-ruled states like Tamil Nadu are conducting the same exercise. Trinamool’s desperate narrative is only increasing the hardship for genuine Indian citizens — both Hindus and Muslims. The Trinamool is responsible, as hundreds of infiltrators detained in various states were found carrying fake documents issued by the Bengal government,” said Bhattacharya.
“This step by the Trinamool is immature, impractical, and is itself a dangerous anti-Bengali narrative,” he added.