Kolkata, July 28 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of being a “partner in the conspiracy” hatched by the BJP and the Union government to implement NRC in the state.
She also claimed that if there is an attempt to indirectly slap NRC in West Bengal under the garb of special intensive revision (SIR) by the poll panel, there will be major opposition in the state against it.
“Under no circumstances will we be allowing implementation of NRC or setting up detention camps in the state. If there is any such attempt, there would be major resistance to such attempts,” the Chief Minister said while speaking at a protest rally at Birbhum district, which marked the beginning of Trinamool Congress’ sustained weekly agitation programme against the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister also gave a call to the migrant workers from West Bengal working in the BJP-ruled state to come back to Bengal instead of staying there and facing harassment. She also assured livelihood guarantees for the migrant workers returning to West Bengal from these BJP-ruled states.
According to her, especially those Bengali-speaking people are being harassed in BJP-ruled states whose Bengali accents are similar to those spoken by the Bangladeshi residents.
“Many people came to India from East Pakistan at the time of partition and thereafter became citizens of the country. Even after coming to India, they continued to speak in the accent that they used to speak when Bangladesh was a part of undivided India. So that same accent is still there in their speech. But that could not be a reason that they would be harassed,” the Chief Minister said.
She also said that while she is not against any language but would not tolerate any attack on the Bengali language, which is being done through harassment of Bengali-speaking people in the BJP-ruled states. She claimed that Haryana, Assam, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Odisha are the worst offenders on this count.
“I am not against any language. But I am against any kind of divisive politics. I want India to remain united,” she said.
Meanwhile, leader of the opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said that instead of making false allegations about harassment of Bengalis in other states, the Chief Minister should concentrate on employment generation so that lakhs of people from West Bengal don’t need to migrate to other states in search of livelihood.
–IANS
src/pgh