Amid the ongoing crackdown against the Bengali-speaking residents, the Delhi police triggered a language controversy by terming Bengali, a classical Indian language, as a “Bangladeshi language.”
Expressing outrage over the issue, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday, August 3, issued a statement saying that the act was tantamount to an insult to all Bengali-speaking people of India.
“They cannot use this kind of language, which degrades and debases us all. We urge immediate, strongest possible protests from all against the anti-Bengali Government of India, who are using such anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate the Bengali-speaking people of India,” the West Bengal CM wrote on social media.
The Delhi police, which is probing a case of eight suspected Bangladeshi nationals illegally residing in Delhi without valid documents, had sought the intervention of the office of Banga Bhavan, the official state guest house of West Bengal, asking them to translate the documents, written in “Bangladeshi language.”
According to the police, the identification documents of the suspected illegal migrants contained texts written in “Bangladeshi” and needed to be translated into Hindi and English. The police requested an official translator/interpreter proficient in “Bangladeshi” national language to aid them in the probe.
Taking offence over the blunder committed by the Delhi police, which comes under the purview of the Union government, Mamata Banerjee said, “See now how Delhi police under the direct control of Ministry of Home, Government of India, is describing Bengali as " Bangladeshi" language!”
“Bengali, our mother tongue, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, the language in which our National Anthem and the National Song (the latter by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) are written, the language in which crores of Indians speak and write, the language which is sanctified and recognised by the Constitution of India, is now described as a Bangladeshi language!!”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin also joined in expressing his protest over the issue. He said that such statements are “not inadvertent errors or slips.”
“They expose the dark mindset of a regime that consistently undermines diversity and weaponises identity. In the face of this assault on non-Hindi languages, Hon’ble @MamataOfficial Didi stands as a shield for the language and people of West Bengal. She will not let this attack pass without a fitting response,” he wrote, lending support to his West Bengal counterpart.
The CPI(M) party also issued a statement condemning the language of the Delhi police. They said that the language of the Delhi police reflected the ideology of BJP-RSS.
“Bengali is a language recognised in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is spoken by millions in India - in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and other states. But Delhi Police thinks Bengali = Bangladeshi. A snapshot of the BJP-RSS's vision of India: Ignorance + communal targeting. We strongly condemn this criminalisation of language and identity (sic),” the party said.
Along with political leaders, several critics condemned the ignorance of the Delhi police.