Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raised concerns over alleged attacks and discrimination against Bengali-speaking migrant workers, particularly in BJP-ruled states, urging the Centre to intervene before the situation escalates into communal tension.

Following the meeting, the former West Bengal Congress chief also wrote a detailed letter to the prime minister, highlighting what he described as a pattern of violence, harassment and misidentification of migrant workers from West Bengal across the country.

“With heavy heart I am constrained to flag your attention that migrant workers from west Bengal who are spreading across the length and breadth of our country are confronting severe discrimination in various states (most precisely BJP ruled states) at a regular interval. Those migrant workers have been investing their sweat and skill in order to eke out livelihoods and as a consequence of which they should be recognized as cogs of our economic wheel of our country. However, they are being subjected to violence, hatred, abuse and even beaten to death,” Adhir wrote.

He alleged that Bengali-speaking workers are often targeted merely because of their language. “Their only offence is that they speak in Bengali language which are often misunderstood by the concerned administration as persons belonging to neighbouring Bangladesh and treated as infiltrators,” Adhir said in the letter.

Pointing to alleged administrative lapses, the Congress leader added, “It is ironical to note that administrative officers including police do not differentiate between "Banglabhas!" and "Bangladeshi" people. And without committing any offence they are lodged into jail or detention centre much to the injustice being meted out.”

Adhir warned that such incidents outside the state were having repercussions within West Bengal as well. He noted that several border districts in the state have sizeable Muslim populations and share a boundary with Bangladesh, and said communal tension is rising in these areas as reports of attacks on migrant workers elsewhere spread.

Citing a recent incident, he referred to the killing of a migrant worker from Murshidabad district in Odisha. A 30-year-old worker, Jewel Rana from the Jangipur region, was killed in Sambalpur following an altercation over a ‘bidi’.

Referring to the incident in his letter, Adhir wrote, “I do also refer to a harrowing incident took place in Orissa's Sambalpur wrhere a youth Mr. Juel Sk. of my district Murshidabad has been bludgeoned to death on tne same excuse of Bangladeshi a I a infiltrator.”

He further pointed out that similar cases are being reported from other parts of the country, including Mumbai, where two migrant workers were recently arrested on suspicion of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Urging immediate action, Adhir appealed to the prime minister to take the lead in addressing the issue.

“Hon'ble Prime Minister on behalf of those poor & wretched migrant labors from my state West Bengal, I. would request you to sensitize all the state governments in the country so as to stop this kind of discrimination, violence, persecution against those concerned migrant labors who have every right enshrined in our constitution to reside, to work, to visit any part of India and it is incumbent upon the Government to ensure safety and security of those migrant labors of our country.”

The concerns raised by the Congress leader come amid data shared by the West Bengal Migrants Welfare Board, which said it had received 1,143 complaints of harassment of migrant workers over the past 10 months, with a majority of the cases allegedly reported from BJP-ruled states.