Odisha Govt Denies Arrest of Any Bengalis, Calcutta HC Asks It to File Affidavit

Kolkata: The Odisha government on Wednesday informed the Calcutta High Court that not a single Bengali-speaking Indian from West Bengal was arrested by the state police in apprehension of them being illegal Bangladesh infiltrators.

The counsel for the Odisha government also informed the division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Kumar Mitra that some were just detained to check whether they were bona fide Indian citizens or not.

The division bench then directed the Odisha government to submit the verbal submission by its counsel to the court in the form of an affidavit. The matter will come up for hearing again on August 28, and by then, the Odisha government will have to submit the affidavit to the division bench.

Meanwhile, Odisha’s Advocate General, Pitambar Acharya, also informed the court that the detention of some people to check their identity credentials was done under the provisions of the Foreigners Act.

He also emphasised that since Bengalis are neighbours and friends of the people of Odisha, unnecessary controversies should not be created in the matter. “We are not anti-Bengali. Several Bengalis are in Odisha. The current Chief Justice of Odisha High Court was also previously a Calcutta High Court Judge,” he submitted.

In his counterargument, the counsel for the West Bengal government and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee questioned whether any Tamil or any Gujarati were also detained for the same verification purposes. “Why were just the Bengali-speaking people targeted? There is a need to clarify the reason behind the suspicion,” he argued.

Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool have been extremely vocal on the issue of alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in different BJP-ruled states. The Chief Minister had specially accused the Odisha and Assam governments of being guilty in the matter.

While addressing the Trinamool’s annual Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata, Banerjee also announced that her party will start weekend protest programmes against the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states from July 27.

She described this weekend protest programme as yet another “Bhasha Andolon (Language Movement”.

Historically, “Bhasha Andolan” was a political movement in what was then East Pakistan, advocating for the recognition of the Bengali language as an official language of the country, which ultimately led to the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971.

–IANS