Guwahati: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday slammed the BJP-led Assam government for “threatening” Bengali-speaking people in the northeastern state, who want to “coexist peacefully respecting all languages and religions”.
The chief minister also asserted that the “divisive agenda” of the BJP in Assam has “crossed all limits”.
In a statement posted on her official X handle, CM Mamata Banerjee wrote, “The second most spoken language in the country, Bangla, is also the second most spoken language of Assam. 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.”
This divisive agenda of the BJP in Assam has crossed all limits and people of Assam will fight back, she said.
Banerjee stated, “I stand with every fearless citizen who is fighting for the dignity of their language and identity, and their democratic rights.”
Responding sharply, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma rejected Mamata’s charges, saying the state’s actions were not against its own people but against unchecked illegal infiltration from across the border.
“In Assam, we are not fighting our own people. We are 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,” Sarma replied to Mamata on X.
Stating that it is not a political narrative but a reality, he said, “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 politicize 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,” Sarma added.
“While we are acting decisively to preserve Assam’s identity, you, Didi, have 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,” the chief minister said.
He said Assam will continue to fight to preserve its heritage, its dignity, and its people — with courage and constitutional clarity.
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The TMC supremo has been accusing the Centre and the BJP-ruled states of systematically targeting Bengali-speaking migrants by branding them as “illegal Bangladeshi” or ‘Rohingya’.
