KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Friday alleged that a Bengali worker from West Bengal was murdered in Maharashtra for being a Bengali, escalating its attack on the BJP over ‘atrocities’ against Bengali speaking people in other states. The Trinamool Congress announced that it would fight against the BJP in every forum on this issue.
Referring to the death of a worker in Maharashtra, the Trinamool Congress in a post on X said: “How many more Bengalis must be butchered before the nation wakes up? A Bengali worker from North 24 Parganas, was MURDERED, his DISMEMBERED BODY STUFFED IN A SACK and dumped near his home in Maharashtra. His only “crime”? Being Bengali in a @BJP4India -ruled state.”
The body of a migrant worker, Abu Bakar Siddiqui, a resident of Baduria in North 24 Parganas in West Bengal, was recovered in Navi Mumbai's Bhasi area. The body was found wrapped in a sack some distance from his house. Siddiqui worked as a mason in Maharashtra. He had been missing since last Sunday.
Investigators initially suspected that the murder was due to his wife's extramarital affair. The wife of the deceased and her lover have been arrested for the murder. The body of the migrant worker was returned to his house in Baduria on Thursday night. The family members have demanded strict punishment for the culprits.
However, a political slugfest started in West Bengal following the murder. Accusing the BJP for targeting the Bengali language, culture and the people, the Trinamool Congress alleged that “Bengalis are being profiled, harassed, deported, lynched”.
“This isn’t incidental, it’s a systematic, state-sponsored ethnic purge. You are targeting a language, a culture, a people. Enough. We will fight this barbarism, on the streets, in courts, in Parliament. And if Delhi still remains deaf, we will march to Delhi. You lit this fire, BJP. Now face the fury!” Trinamool thundered at the BJP.
However, in response to Trinamool's allegations, BJP West Bengal state president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said, “This politics of Trinamool Congress is a politics of lies, a politics of duplicity, a politics of communal division, a politics of creating extreme provincialism based on language... Today, it is practically a declaration of war against the migrant workers who are working outside West Bengal. The Bengalis who are being arrested in various states, are not citizens of our country.”
Claiming that Bengalis are cooperating with the police in every way, he said, “Therefore, what they are talking about such isolated incidents has no political reality. It has no acceptance in society.”
