Kolkata, July 22 -- Announcing that she is set to hold a rally in Bolpur on July 28 as part of her 'Language Movement' against BJP's linguistic terrorism, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday once again hit out at the BJP government in Assam for "sending NRC notices" to the legitimate citizens of Bengal, calling it totally "unconstitutional".

Banerjee, for the past few days, has been accusing the saffron party of launching an attack on Bengali-speaking people.

"The Foreigner's Tribunal of Kokrajhar in Assam has sent a notice to another resident of Falakata. It is not only unethical but unconstitutional," Mamata said. She added: "I would urge the double-engine government to oil their own machine instead of interfering in Bengal's own matters. How can Assam interfere in Bengal's affairs?" She also stated: "If BJP continues to do what they are doing the country will be divided." Banerjee also maintained that the BJP government at the Centre was pursuing a discriminatory policy against the Bengali language and the people of the state, and attempts were being made to label those who speak Bengali as 'Bangladeshi citizens'.

She also stated that her government received a letter from the Haryana government for verification of documents of 52 Bengali-speaking people, suspecting them to be Bangladeshis. "We have received another letter today. It has come from Haryana, suspecting 52 Bengali-speaking people as Bangladeshis.

The District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police in various districts, including Malda, South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Nadia, Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, South 24-Parganas, have been instructed to verify the names of individuals and inform them as per Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) guidelines," she said. "Are they trying to capture Bengal? Are they trying to erase Bengal's identity? Is this some kind of linguistic terrorism?" she asked.

"The verification of documents of these Bengali-speaking people in Gurgaon has been sought, and they have been kept in the detention camps," she added. She also asserted that she will bring out rallies wherever she goes to protest against "language terrorism".

"I will also participate in a Language-related rally in Birbhum soon," Banerjee pointed out. "We will speak in Bengali in Parliament as well. If the BJP think that it would win Bengal like they did in the case of Maharashtra, they are wrong," Mamata said.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.