Key Points

Seeking her intervention to stop such incidents, Chowdhury alleged that Bengalis are being harassed in different states and Bengali-speaking migrant workers are being labelled as "Bangladeshi". He also handed a two-page memorandum to the President. The meeting lasted for about 40 minutes.

After the meeting, Chowdhury said that the President assured him that she would look into the matter. Adhir told the President that he had also met Bengali migrant workers who were subjected to harassment in Panipat, Haryana.

"The freedom and security of Bengali migrants to work in other states should be ensured. This issue should be discussed in the state. I will soon meet the Governor of Bengal and discuss the matter," the Congress leader said after he met with the President.

In the memorandum, Chowdhury wrote, "As you are well aware, reports have been continuously pouring in from various fora, including Civil and Human rights organisations on the very sad, disturbing and cruel fact about the innumerable cases of harassment, humiliation, threats, illegal detention, physical torture (including forced push-back of some Bengali migrant workers into Bangladesh also) who are eking out their living as daily wage labourers engaged mostly in low-paying un-skilled and semi-skilled occupations in different parts of the country."

He further said that the fact that the physical appearance, the food habits, culture and language spoken by these migrant workers, who are bona fide Indian citizens, are similar to that of Bangladeshis, is being used as a pretext to harass, humiliate, physically assault and hold the poor labourers in detention. “Concerned state government officials do not even understand the distinction between ‘BANGLABHASI’ of West Bengal and ‘BANGLADESHI’ of the neighbouring country, BANGLADESH."

Chowdhury also urged the President to call for a report from the government on the ongoing crackdown on Bengali-speaking migrant labourers, issuing appropriate instructions for ensuring that the legal process is duly followed in identifying “illegal immigrants” in different states.

“Taking every possible step to ensure that the innocent Bengali-speaking people who are bona fide Indian nationals working as labourers in different parts of the Country do not continue to be subjected to humiliation, harassment, torture, loss of livelihood and the threat of being thrown out of the country, they rightfully belong to,” he said.

The senior leader said that he is eagerly looking forward to President Murmu’s kind intervention in putting an end to the suffering the innocent and hapless are being subjected to.

- IANS