Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has lashed out at the Delhi Police for referring to Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language,” calling it a grave insult to Bengali-speaking Indians while asking for the “strongest possible protests” against what she termed an “anti-Bengali Government of India.”
” We urge immediate strongest possible protests from all against the anti-Bengali Government of India who are using such anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate the Bengali-speaking people of India,” Banerjee wrote on her X handle hours after Delhi Police sought assistance from Banga Bhavan in the national capital seeking translation of “Bangladeshi Language” following the arrest of eight suspected illegal immigrants, who, police said, spoke Bengali.
“See how Delhi Police, under the direct control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, is describing Bengali as a ‘Bangladeshi language’!” Banerjee added.
The West Bengal Chief Minister, who is also the chairperson of the ruling Trinamool Congress, today directed all her party MPs, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, to attend a virtual meeting at 4 30 pm today to decide the party’s response in Parliament during the ongoing session.
According to TMC sources, the party plans to raise several issues in Parliament, including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the arrest and deportation of Bengali-speaking people from various states, and the controversial Delhi Police letter.
” Bengali, our mother tongue, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, the language in which our National Anthem and the National Song (the latter by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) are written, the language in which crores of Indians speak and write, the language which is sanctified and recognised by the Constitution of India, is now described as a Bangladeshi language!! Scandalous, insulting, anti- national, unconstitutional!!,” Banerjee said.
She said such remarks degrade and debase the dignity of Bengali-speaking Indians and must be firmly resisted.
“These insults to all Bengali-speaking people of India cannot be tolerated. We demand an immediate, strongest possible protest against such unconstitutional and humiliating language,” Banerjee reiterated.
