Claiming that Bengali-speaking people from the state were being branded as Bangladeshis in some BJP-ruled states, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said this cannot be allowed.
Banerjee told reporters in her Assembly chamber that she has information that 300-400 Bengali-speaking migrant labourers were confined in a building in Rajasthan during the day despite showing valid documents.
"Is it a crime to speak in Bangla, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, among other luminaries? I think Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not aware of this development. I will draw his attention," she said.
She claimed that apart from Rajasthan, such incidents also took place in BJP-ruled Delhi and Madhya Pradesh in the past.
To a question, Banerjee said the chief secretary is taking up the latest such issue with his counterpart in Rajasthan.
According to Nabanna sources, the incident allegedly took place at Bhiwadi, a planned city in Rajasthan's Khairthal-Tijara district and a part of the National Capital Region of Delhi.
It is located 32 km from Khairthal-Tijara city, the district headquarters, 85 km away from the city of Alwar and situated on the Rajasthan-Haryana border.
"So far my knowledge goes, whoever arrived till 1971 is an Indian citizen," she added.
Banerjee said 1.5 crore migrant workers from different states are employed in different units in 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.
"Is the Union Home Ministry under Amit Shah unaware of this witch-hunt against Bengali-speaking migrants?" she questioned.
The Chief Minister noted that around 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal are currently employed in other states.
"Will Tamil-speaking people be deported to Sri Lanka since they speak Tamil, or will, for that matter, Indians belonging to the Gorkha community be sent to Nepal for speaking in Nepali?," she wondered.
"I often urge people to stay back and work here, but many go outside the state in search of livelihood. Is it their crime to speak in Bengali? They carry all relevant citizenship documents," she said.
On alleged atrocities against Dalits in BJP-ruled states, she said, "This is very unfortunate that minorities and Dalits are being attacked." "They (Centre) despatch at least 10 different teams belonging to separate central commissions whenever any stray incident is alleged in Bengal. But the Centre remains silent when attacks on Dalits, women and minorities take place regularly in states ruled by their people (BJP)," she added.
The CM said Bangladesh High Commissioner M Riaz Hamidullah met her at the state secretariat only after she got a nod from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress in a post on its official X handle said, "Bengali-speaking workers are facing grave humiliation and discrimination in @BJP4India-ruled states. Today, over 300 workers from Itahar, Uttar Dinajpur, who had migrated to Rajasthan for work, were falsely accused of being 'Bangladeshi' and detained. Their only 'crime' was their language." "Smt. @MamataOfficial expressed deep concern and has directed the Chief Secretary to take immediate steps to ensure their safety and secure their release," the post added.
Banerjee had flagged the same issue on the floor of the state Assembly last week, asserting Bengali-speaking migrants from West Bengal were deported from BJP-ruled states in western India and pushed towards Bangladesh despite producing all citizenship proof.
"The dialect spoken by people in Bangladesh is different from the dialect spoken by Bengali-speaking Indian citizens in West Bengal. How can residents of our state be harassed in this way?" she asked on Tuesday.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
