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Tripura CM Manik Saha. (Source: File)
The Tripura unit of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Thursday criticised the ruling BJP for purportedly treating Bengali-speaking people as illegal immigrants.
Addressing media persons in Agartala, TMC youth leader Santanu Saha said, “A BJP chief minister recently said that those who consider Bengali as their mother tongue will be easy to identify as Bangladeshis (immigrants). We feel this is a conspiracy of the double-engine government to drive those who speak in Bengali out of the country. Sometimes they (Bengalis) are called Rohingyas, sometimes Bangladeshis… this is a double standard, fascism. The CM of Tripura, who is a Bengali himself, is yet to give any clarification on this.”
“Manik Babu has not given any assurances to Bengalis till today. We want him to clarify his stand before the people, he added.
His comments came two days after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had targeted the TMC for ‘distorting’ his comments on Bengali-speaking Muslims.
In response to All BTC Minority Students Union leader Moinuddin Ali’s remark that Bengali-speaking Muslims would identify Bengali as their mother tongue during census enumeration and that Assamese would cease to be the language of the majority in Assam, Assam BJP Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had purportedly said, “Writing Bengali as mother tongue in the census documents will quantify the number of foreigners in Assam.”
Terming his comments as ‘outrageous’, the TMC had accused him of being hateful towards Bengalis and demanded an apology from him.
Assam CM Sarma later refuted the charges and said on X, “Assam has been waging a relentless war against illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims for several decades. The recent attempt by the @AITCofficial to distort my media remarks and portray our stand as anti-Bengali is nothing but a desperate ploy to shield Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh – whose very presence threatens to alter the demographic fabric of our nation.”
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Citing Sarma’s comments, TMC leader Milton Chakma on Thursday said, “No particular community should be targeted and termed Bangladeshi. We are also against illegal immigrants. But we are protesting against any attempt to target any particular community in the name of combating illegal immigration.”
The TMC leaders also criticised the state government’s move to install smart electric meters, along with the decision of the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) to hike water taxes.
The party said it would hold a sit-in demonstration outside the AMC office in Agartala on July 28 to protest against the hike in water taxes.
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