Amid a simmering row over the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused the BJP in Assam of threatening people with “persecution” for upholding their mother tongue.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma hit back, accusing the TMC supremo of “compromising Bengal’s future” by “encouraging illegal encroachment by a particular community”.
Accusing BJP-led governments of branding Bengalis as illegal Bangladeshis or Rohingya, Banerjee had recently led a protest march in Kolkata in the backdrop of large-scale evictions in Assam, mostly affecting Bengali-speaking people. Sarma had said the decision was aimed at “protecting demographic change”.
Banerjee said on X Saturday, “The second most spoken language in the country, Bangla, is also the second most spoken language of Assam. To threaten citizens, who want to coexist peacefully respecting all languages and religions, with persecution for upholding their own mother tongue is discriminatory and unconstitutional.” “This divisive agenda of BJP in Assam has crossed all limits and people of Assam will fight back.”
Sarma launched a counterattack and in a post on X accused the Bengal CM of indulging in appeasement politics at the cost of national integrity. He said that the government is not fighting “our own people” but instead opposing “ongoing, unchecked Muslim infiltration from across the border, which has already caused an alarming demographic shift.”
“In several districts, Hindus are now on the verge of becoming a minority in their own land. This is not a political narrative — it’s a reality. Even the Supreme Court of India has termed such infiltration as external aggression. And yet, when we rise to defend our land, culture, and identity, you choose to politicise it. We do not divide people by language or religion. Assamese, Bangla, Bodo, Hindi — all languages and communities have coexisted here. But no civilisation can survive if it refuses to protect its borders and its cultural foundation,” he said.
“While we are acting decisively to preserve Assam’s identity, you, Didi, have compromised Bengal’s future — encouraging illegal encroachment by a particular community, appeasing one religious community for vote banks, and remaining silent as border infiltration eats away at national integrity — all just to stay in power.”
