West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee intensified her attack on the BJP-led Assam government, accusing it of “threatening” Bengali-speaking residents who seek to “peacefully coexist, respecting all languages and religions.” In a post on X, Banerjee called the BJP’s actions a “divisive agenda” that has “crossed all limits,” labeling the persecution of citizens for upholding their mother tongue as “discriminatory and unconstitutional.”

Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, has repeatedly charged the BJP and central government with targeting Bengali-speaking migrants, branding them as “illegal Bangladeshi” or “Rohingya.” She emphasized that Bangla, India’s second most-spoken language, is also Assam’s second most-spoken language, and vowed to stand with “every fearless citizen fighting for the dignity of their language and identity.”

The controversy escalated after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Thursday that Banerjee’s concern was limited to Bengali-speaking Muslims, stating, “The question is whether Mamata Banerjee likes Bengalis or only Muslim-Bengalis. My answer is only Muslim-Bengalis.” Sarma, speaking in Guwahati, warned that if Banerjee “comes to Assam for Muslim-Bengalis, the Assamese people and Hindu-Bengalis will not spare her,” framing Assam’s actions as a fight against “unchecked Muslim infiltration” causing demographic shifts.

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Banerjee’s remarks follow a TMC-led protest march in Kolkata on July 16, where she accused BJP-ruled states like Assam, Odisha, and Maharashtra of harassing Bengali migrants, citing 1,000 complaints since June. The TMC also condemned Sarma’s July 12 statement that listing Bengali as a mother tongue in census records could label individuals as “Bangladeshi,” calling it an attack on India’s Bengali national anthem and song.

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