“Scandalous, insulting, and unconstitutional” is how Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said in August 3 letter. She angered with Delhi police that was called Bengali, or Bangla, a “Bangladeshi language”. Bengali artists and different parties, including Banerjee’s arch-rival CPM, echoed the sentiment.
BJP IT cell leader Amit Malviya reacted by accusing Mamata Banerjee of spreading incorrect information for “vote bank politics”. He referred to her X post as a badly scripted political stunt”.
Mamata Banerjee Slams Delhi Police Over ‘Bangladeshi Language’ Remark
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, sharing a photograph of the letter on X, emphasised that Bengali is sanctified by the Indian Constitution, and the mother tongue of icons like Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
The police had written to Banga Bhawan, West Bengal’s national guest house in New Delhi, searching for assistance with translating files written in “Bangladeshi language” for 8 people suspected of undocumented people from Bangladesh. HT has not independently demonstrated the authenticity of the letter, and the police have not yet answered.
TMC Leaders Accuse BJP of Targeting Bengali Speakers
After Mamata Banerjee show anger with delhi police, TMC leaders come in support. “For months now, Bengali-speaking people targeted, detained across BJP-dominated states,” he said, and known as the letter “a shocking escalation” and an attempt to “undermine Bengali identification” and “equate Indian Bengalis with foreigners”.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra also post: “To call [Bangla] a Bangladeshi language on official documentation is a calculated motion. We demand an unconditional apology from the Delhi Police.”
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM also claimed that Bengali is spoken by thousands and thousands in India, “But Delhi Police thinks Bengali = Bangladeshi.” It added, “We strongly condemn this criminalisation of language and identity.”
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