KOLKATA: Alleging that Bengalis and Biharis were being systematically expelled from Assam and Gujarat respectively by the state BJP governments, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the doors of West Bengal are open for all expelled people.
Speaking at an administrative review meeting in Assam-bordering Coochbehar district of West Bengal on Tuesday, the Trinamool Congress supremo said: "While they are driving away Bengalis in Assam, they are also ousting Biharis from Gujarat.
Bengal will stand by everybody. We have room for everyone. Bengal loves everyone. It does not drive out anyone."This is the first time the aspiring anti-BJP Federal Front leader spoke on the exodus of over 60,000 Hindi-speaking migrants from Gujarat sparked by the rape of a 14-year-old girl allegedly by a Bihar native at Sabarkantha district of Gujarat on September 28.
Lashing out at the BJP over NRC-related suicides, she added: "Reports of people committing suicide because their names were missing from NRC list are unfortunate. We love the people from Assam and Bengal. We never discriminate as we are neighbours. I am saddened. The name of one person is not in NRC but the names of his wife and children are in the list.
This drove him to commit suicide."The TMC supremo also accused BJP of distorting the history of the country to create religious tensions among the people in the wake of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "Those trying to distort our secular history should know that the people of Bengal will neither encourage nor allow divisive politics," she added.
The West Bengal Chief Minister asked the Coochbehar administration to speed up the allotment of land records to dwellers of the enclaves that were exchanged with Bangladesh in a landmark land exchange agreement three years ago.
Responding to the TMC supremo, state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said: "She should focus on the law and order situation of her own state before meddling with affairs of other states. In West Bengal, TMC cadres are killing not only members of other political parties but also their own party men."