Delhi Police’s description of Bengali an insult to language in which national anthem was written: Stalin

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin expressed solidarity with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, and objected to the Delhi Police – under the Union Home Ministry – reportedly describing Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language”. “This is a direct insult to the very language in which our national anthem was written,” Mr. Stalin said in a social media post on Monday (August 4, 2025) morning.

Mr. Stalin said such statements were not inadvertent errors or slip-ups, but they exposed “the dark mindset of a regime that consistently undermines diversity and weaponises identity”. In the face of this “assault on non-Hindi languages”, Ms. Banerjee stood as a shield for the language and people of West Bengal, who would not let this attack pass without a fitting response, Mr. Stalin said.

Ms. Banerjee had stated that a purported communication by the Delhi Police had reportedly referred to Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language”. She had termed it “scandalous, insulting, anti-national, unconstitutional”, and further contended that it insulted all Bengali-speaking people of India. She had further said that they “cannot use this kind of language, which degrades and debases us all”.

She had said: “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!”

Ms. Banerjee had further said: “We urge immediate strongest possible protests from all against the anti-Bengali Government of India, which is using such anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate the Bengali-speaking people of India.”