West Bengal Assembly debates harassment on Bengali speaking migrants in other States

The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Tuesday (September 2, 2025) held a discussion on a resolution on the harassment and targeting of Bengali speaking migrants in different parts of the country. The resolution was tabled by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and the debate witnessed noisy scenes.

While tabling the resolution the Minister said that Bengali is the scheduled language as per the Constitution of India and as per the last census about 8.3 % people in the country speak in Bengali.

Also read | In the name of a nation: The Bengali migrant worker and Indian citizenship 

Mr. Chattopadhyay in the resolution said that workers from Bengal, who migrate to different States of India in search of livelihood, are being attacked and forcibly evicted from their settlements by labelling them derogatorily as “Bangladeshis”. The Minister said that the Assembly strongly condemns all such incidents and demands that Bengalis be allowed to live with dignity, security, and freedom anywhere in the country, and that steps be taken to protect the constitutional rights of Bengali-speaking people.

Along with Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Minister Firhad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Bratya Basu participated in the debate on the resolution. Mr Hakim said that Bengali is the second most spoken language in the country and seventh most spoken language in the country. The Minister said that in the States where the BJP government is not there the migrants from the State have not been targeted. “ This is because BJP is anti- Bengali,” the Minister said.

Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the national anthem is written in Bengali and no person in the country can deny that. Ms. Bhattacharya said that some BJP leaders say that Bengali is not language and the national anthem was a ‘Brahma mantra (A mantra of Brahma samaj).’

State’s Education Minister Bratya Basu traced the history as to how after independence States were created on the basis of language. He raised the issue of how people in Bangladesh were targeted for speaking in Bengali.

The BJP MLAs Sankar Ghosh, Ashim Sarkar and Sikha Chatterjee participated in the discussion. Mr Ghosh said that nowhere in the country educated Bengalis have been targeted and raised questions as to whether the majority of those targeted in BJP ruled states are from Bangladesh. Ashim Sarkar, a BJP MLA a representative from the Matua community, said that the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) gave citizenship to Bengali Hindus for the first time.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to participate in the discussion on the issue on Thursday. Leader Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was suspended by the Speaker for creating ruckus in the State Assembly on Tuesday during the debate.

Hundreds of Bengali speaking migrants have faced detention and harassment in different States across the country and asked to produce documents to prove that they are not Bangladeshi nationals. Some of the migrant workers from West Bengal have said that they were pushed into Bangladesh but later repatriated with the help of Indian authorities.