Latest news with #Bangla-speaking
Time of India
an hour ago
- Politics
- Time of India
‘People who came here with dreams disgraced', say TMC MPs in Gurgaon
Gurgaon: Five Trinamool Congress MPs on Tuesday visited the city to interact with migrant workers, several of whom were rounded up and detained last week as Gurgaon police launched a drive to identify Bangladeshis and Rohingya living illegally in the city. Rajya Sabha MPs Mamata Thakur and Prakash Baraik, and Lok Sabha MPs Sharmila Sarkar, Pratima Mondal and Bapi Haldar went to Maidawas village in Sector 64, where they listened to accounts of the detention and fears of a recurrence from the settlement's largely Bengali-speaking migrant population. The MPs assured them of help by the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal govt. "West Bengal is a part of India. Our people are not Bangladeshis. Police here should behave and treat them respectfully. Many people complained of being tortured and humiliated by cops even though they had all the documents… they were detained because they spoke in Bangla. Our govt is there for our people, and we will take every step to ensure their safety," Haldar, the parliamentarian from Mathurapur Lok Sabha constituency, said. You Can Also Check: Gurgaon AQI | Weather in Gurgaon | Bank Holidays in Gurgaon | Public Holidays in Gurgaon Sarkar, who represents Bardhaman East in Lok Sabha, told TOI that the party delegation was sent to Gurgaon by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to address panic among people from the state after the verification drive led to many of them packing up and leaving. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Extend your summer in Mallorca Viva hotels Book Now Undo "The drive could have been handled better. These people came with dreams, but they have been disgraced in Gurgaon," Sarkar said. Starting July 18, Gurgaon police started detaining workers to follow up on the Union home ministry's May 2 directive to identify and deport illegal immigrants from the country. Around 250 people, most living in slum settlements, were detained in four 'holding centres' till police 'verified' their identity documents. Of these, 10 were eventually found to be undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh. The drive sparked a political row as TMC accused BJP of targeting Bangla-speaking workers indiscriminately. "These illegal detentions are an insult to our mother tongue and ashmita (identity)… Speaking Bangla is being treated as a crime…" Mamata Banerjee had said. A senior police officer told TOI the drive was simply to identify and deport undocumented migrants. He added that many workers were seen leaving the city to go back to their hometowns in buses with West Bengal registration plates. "We had asked West Bengal authorities to verify documents within 48 hours, but they took long, and that's why people had to stay at holding centres for four days. They were given good food, bedding and filtered water. Some people are doing politics and causing unnecessary panic, forcing people to leave," the officer said. Lok Sabha MP Mondal refuted Gurgaon police's claims that the workers were detained for days because the West Bengal govt delayed the verification process. Mondal, who represents Jaynagar constituency, said police had seized workers' mobile phones. "So, they couldn't reach out to us. Still, we responded speedily to verification queries," she said.
Indian Express
a day ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Bhasha Andolan From Tagore's Bolpur: Mamata hyphenates ‘SIR-linguistic terror', slams EC-BJP ‘bid to bring NRC through backdoor'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hyphenated the issues of detention of Bangla-speaking migrants in several parts of the country with the Election Commission's plan to roll out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country, including in poll-bound West Bengal, and accused the BJP and the EC of trying to implement the NRC in the country 'through the backdoor'. Launching her party's Bhasha Andolan (language movement) campaign from Bolpur – the karmabhoomi of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore – the TMC supremo alleged that the BJP-led Centre, in collusion with the EC, was targeting minorities, OBCs, the poor, and Bengali-speaking voters through the Special Summary Revision, to strike off genuine names from the voter list in a 'covert' NRC-like exercise. The chief minister, who took part in a 3-km march in Bolpur, holding a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore, asserted that she would not allow the setting up of detention centres in West Bengal and dared the EC to delete names of genuine voters, saying such 'steps would attract consequences'. 'If you (EC) dare delete names from Bengal's voter list, you will witness Chhau dance, dhamsa-madol, conch shells, cymbals, and war drums. Have you heard such sounds before? We will make you hear them,' she said. Accusing the EC of acting at the behest of the BJP government at the Centre, 'They (EC) are finalising the voters' list, while sitting in Gujarat. Gujaratis are not my enemies. The BJP's agency (EC) is doing this… They have already set up detention camps in Haryana and Assam. I will not allow NRC to be implemented in Bengal as long as I am alive. I won't allow detention camps to be built here… Have our Hindu brothers forgotten how 7 lakh names were removed in Assam? We want to say: 'Jo humse takrayega, choor choor ho jaayega' (Those who will collide with us will be shattered)'. 'The EC has come up with a new rule that the old list will no longer be used. Names must be re-entered from scratch. They are asking for the birth certificates of parents, too. Ask them if they themselves have their birth certificates. Those who are part of this conspiracy, do they have their documents in place?' she said. 'We will stop this conspiracy to jeopardise our existence in the name of linguistic terror and an attempt to implement NRC through the backdoor… The EC, with due respect, are you playing the government's NRC game?' she added. The TMC supremo declared she would 'give up her life but not her language', and vowed to stand against attempts to erase Bengali 'asmita' (pride), disenfranchise the poor, or drive out migrants under the guise of electoral roll revision. 'We have no enmity with any language. I believe that unity in diversity is the foundation of our nation. But if you try to erase our language and culture, we will resist peacefully, powerfully, and politically,' she said. In a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamata said, 'When you travel to Arab nations and hug the sheikhs, do you ask whether they are Hindus or Muslims? Did you ask the Maldives President his religion before hugging him and donating Rs 5,000 crore, while depriving Bengal of its dues?' Stating that Bengali is the fifth-most spoken language in the world and the second-most spoken in Asia, Banerjee questioned the ongoing discrimination. 'Yet, Bengalis are being tortured across states. Why this hatred? If Bengal can accept and shelter 1.5 crore migrant workers from other states, why can't you accept 22 lakh Bengali migrants working elsewhere?' she asked. The Bolpur protest march was not just political; it was rich in emotion and symbolism. Banerjee wore her trademark white cotton sari and a traditional uttariya from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Raising slogans of 'Joy Bangla' and 'Jai Hind' at the end of her speech, Banerjee urged TMC workers to spread the language movement. -With PTI Inputs from Bolpur Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Detention of Bangla-speaking migrants: Bhasha stir begins, Mamata to march in Birbhum today
As the Trinamool Congress on Sunday launched its Bhasha Andolan campaign over detention and deportation of Bangla-speaking migrants in several states of the country, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to lead a protest march in Birbhum town on Monday. The march will commence from the Tourist Lodge intersection and conclude at the Jambooni bus stand, followed by the chief minister's speech. On Sunday, she reiterated her charge against the BJP of unleashing a regime of 'linguistic terror' on Bengalis in the country, claiming that members of a migrant family were beaten up by the police in Delhi. Banerjee shared a video on X of a child and his mother purportedly belonging to a migrant family from West Bengal's Malda district, who were allegedly beaten up by the police in the national capital. 'Atrocious!! Terrible!! See how Delhi police brutally beat up a kid and his mother, members of a migrant family from Malda's Chanchal. See how even a child is not spared from the cruelty of violence in the regime of linguistic terror unleashed by BJP in the country against the Bengalis! Where are they taking our country now?' she wrote. Banerjee had last Monday accused the BJP of unleashing 'linguistic terrorism' on Bengalis, asserting that the fight for identity and language will continue until BJP is defeated. Speaking at the TMC's annual Martyrs' Day rally, she had announced that from Sunday, a movement would start in West Bengal to protest against 'attacks on Bengalis, the Bengali language and linguistic terrorism'. Marches were organised in Bhawanipore and Sealdah in Kolkata and elsewhere in Chuchura, Bankura, Birbhum, Cooch Behar by TMC workers, who held placards highlighting 'harassment and persecution' of the migrant workers in Assam, Odisha, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Maharashtra by the police in those states. TMC MLA Asim Majumdar led the rally at Khadina More in Chuchura, where he asserted that the 'double-engine governments' in those BJP-ruled states were 'deliberately harassing' Bengali-speaking migrants despite producing documents like Aadhaar cards and Voter ID cards. 'As stated by our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, we have started this 'language movement' from today, which will hit the streets every weekend till the middle of August in the run-up to Independence Day. We will not take the persecution of Bengalis lightly,' he asserted. TMC leader and North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha led another march at Dinhata in Cooch Behar, vowing to resist the 'attempt by the BJP to strike off names of legitimate voters from voter lists, and send Indian citizens from Bengal to detention camps for electoral gains'. Thousands of TMC activists took part in the rallies in Sealdah and Bhawanipore with placards displaying Bengali alphabets and slogans against 'torture on Bengali-speaking people by the BJP outside West Bengal'. The processions disrupted vehicular movement in parts of central and south Kolkata.
The Print
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
CM Saini slams Mamata, says no place for Bangladeshi infiltrators in Haryana
Gurugram Police had earlier said that eight Bangladeshi nationals had been detained as part of an ongoing drive to identify illegal immigrants, who will be deported soon. 'There is no place for Bangladeshi infiltrators in Haryana; they are being taken out from the state (deported) as quickly as possible,' Saini said in a post on X in Hindi. Chandigarh, Jul 26 (PTI) Amid a drive in Gurugram district to identify illegal immigrants, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday asserted that there is no place for Bangladeshi infiltrators in the state, as he slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her 'sympathy towards those who breach the country's security'. Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that poor Bangla-speaking workers from West Bengal were being harassed, detained and even pushed into Bangladesh by authorities in certain BJP-ruled states, dubbing the incidents as acts of 'linguistic terror'. 'West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's sympathy toward those who breach the country's security is not only unfortunate but also against national interests. It is utterly deplorable that a chief minister, driven by appeasement and vote-bank politics, stoops so low as to compromise the country's security,' Saini said in his post. He adde, 'No compromise against India's unity, sovereignty and Constitution is acceptable in Haryana or anywhere in the country. For us, the nation's interest will always be paramount.' In a strongly-worded post on X on Thursday, Banerjee accused the governments in Haryana and Rajasthan of unleashing 'tortures and tortures (sic)' on Bengali-speaking citizens, and questioned what the BJP was trying to prove through such actions. 'Have been increasingly receiving reports of detentions and atrocities on our Bengali-speaking people from different districts of West Bengal in Gurgaon, Haryana. West Bengal police is receiving these reports from Haryana police in the name of requests for identity searches,' she said in her post. On Saturday, while referring to a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), Banerjee strongly criticised the alleged deportation of Bangla-speaking Muslims from India without due process, calling it a 'shame' for the country. She claimed the HRW report stated that such deportations have been taking place systematically in the BJP-ruled states of Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Delhi, following a directive by the Ministry of Home Affairs, government of India. PTI CHS VSD ARI ARI This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Sagarika Ghose, Rajya Sabha MP (TMC): ‘Bangla speakers being targeted under linguistic terror… unacceptable'
TMC Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose speaks to The Indian Express about the TMC's allegations of BJP 'unleashing linguistic terror' after reports of Bangla-speaking migrants being detained, weekend protests in Bengal on the issue, how the party will raise this in Parliament, and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar's resignation. Edited excerpts: On what basis has the TMC accused the BJP of 'unleashing linguistic terror' in the country? It is very clear that in every BJP-ruled state, Bangla-speaking migrant workers are being targeted. They are being dubbed as Bangladeshi and Rohingya. They are being taken to police stations and asked to produce documents. They are citizens of India and they are producing the documents, compelling the police to let them off, but only after going through torture and harassment. Their only crime is that they are Bangla speakers and are being called Bangladeshis… These migrants are the ones who have built our cities. Could you tell us about the weekend protests announced by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee? Starting from July 27, our party will hold protests across West Bengal on this issue. Intellectuals, civil society members and people from different walks of life will protest against this. We feel very strongly about Bangla. It is our proud inheritance. It is the language of Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, and so many other greats. The Bengalis were the ones who took the lead in the freedom struggle… To say that only Hindi is a repository of Indianness. This is Hindi imperialism. It is unacceptable to us. You cannot pick up people based on the language they speak. You can do it if they don't have the correct documentation. How is the TMC going to raise this issue in Parliament? We have been raising it in Parliament and outside. We have submitted a slew of adjournment notices seeking discussion on this issue. None of the notices are being taken up. Our leader (in Rajya Sabha) Derek O'Brien spoke in Bangla during the farewell remarks for Mr Vaiko in the House. Have you discussed this issue with your INDIA bloc allies, and will they also raise this in the Houses? All the allies are with us. They are aghast at the manner in which this is happening. All of this is related to the Bihar SIR, which is being undertaken with a malafide intent. This is what the EC is doing with political parties. It is based on exclusion. Who is the EC to decide who is a citizen? All of us (Opposition) are on board on this issue. This is an attack on Bangla speakers and part of 'linguistic terrorism' unleashed by the BJP. Almost all the parties in Opposition have raised questions on the resignation of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar. The TMC has been largely silent on it. Why? Our leader Mamata Banerjee has spoken. She has said that he didn't seem to be suffering from any health issues. I have also said that the government needs to bring clarity on why such a high Constitutional dignitary demitted office overnight. Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More
