Mamata Banerjee hits out at Delhi Police for calling Bengali a “Bangladeshi Language”.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has lashed out at the Delhi Police for referring Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language”, terming it a grave insult to Bengali speaking Indians and called 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 and Trinamool Congress (TMC) Supremo has called a virtual meeting at 4:30 pm today with all her party MPs from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, 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 National Song are written, spoken and written by crores of Indians, and recognised and sanctified by the Constitution of India, is now being described as a Bangladeshi language! Scandalous, insulting, anti-national, and unconstitutional!” Banerjee wrote.

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.

Team Maverick