West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that Bengali language and identity is paramount to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday (July 19, 2025) claimed that the BJP was persecuting Bengali speakers in Assam.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma hit back stating that the West Bengal Chief Minister has “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.”
Mamata Banerjee only concerned about Bengali-speaking Muslims: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
West Bengal Chief Minister in a social media post highlighted that Bengali (Bangla) is the second most spoken language in the country and also in Assam and 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.”
The Trinamool Congress chairperson said that this “divisive agenda of the BJP in Assam has crossed all limits and people of Assam will fight back.” Ms. Banerjee said she stands with “every fearless citizen who is fighting for the dignity of their language and identity, and their democratic rights.”
Refuting the West Bengal Chief Minister’s charges, Assam Chief Minister emphasised that in his State, the government was not fighting its own people but “fearlessly resisting the 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,” he said in a social media post.
Mr. Biswa Sarma said that 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 added.
Migrants from Bengal being treated like trespassers in their own country: Mamata Banerjee
There have been several reports of migrant workers from West Bengal being targeted in various BJP ruled States and the West Bengal Chief Minister has hit the streets on June 16 threatening protests all across the country if the persecution does not stop. Earlier this month Assam Chief Minister has said people who seek to replace Assamese with Bengali in the electoral rolls would help the government get an idea about the number of “foreigners” in the State.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public rally in West Bengal on July 18 has said that for the BJP, Bengali ‘ashmita (identity and pride)‘ is paramount and wherever there is a BJP government, Bengalis are respected, Bengali language is respected.
Published – July 19, 2025 03:57 pm IST
