Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury meets PM, flags Bengal migrants being ‘targeted’ in BJP-ruled states

As elections to the West Bengal Assembly approach, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and flagged concerns regarding migrant workers from the state facing atrocities in BJP-ruled states.

Chowdhury, who met Modi at his office in Delhi, also said that he had spoken to the PM about the Matua community in the state, which according to him, “fear that their names will be removed from the electoral list in the SIR”.

In his letter to Modi, Chowdhury wrote that migrant workers from West Bengal spread across the length and breadth of our country are confronting severe discrimination in various states (most precisely BJP ruled states) at a regular interval. “Those migrant workers have been investing their sweat and skill in order to eke out livelihoods and as a consequence of which they should be recognised as cogs of our economic wheel of our country. However, they are being subjected to violence, hatred, abuse and even beaten to death,” he added.

Chowdhury claimed that their “only offence is that they speak in Bengali language which is often misunderstood by the concerned administration as persons belonging to neighbouring Bangladesh and treated as infiltrators”. “It is ironic to note that administrative officers including police do not differentiate between ‘Banglabhasi’ and ‘Bangladeshi’ people. And without committing any offence they are lodged in jail or detention centres much to the injustice being meted out,” wrote Chowdhury.

The Congress leader also mentioned the case of 19-year-old migrant labourer Jewel Sheikh, who was lynched in Sambalpur district of Odisha on the evening of December 24 and requested the PM to “sensitize all the state governments in the country so as to stop this kind of discrimination, violence, persecution”.

Speaking after the meeting, Chowdhury reiterated his claims in the letter, and added that the PM assured him that he will look into the issues raised by the Congress leader. “In BJP-ruled states, the migrant workers are facing atrocities. I appealed to the prime minister to do something to stop this… During the recent Parliament session, not a lot was said about migrant workers,” he said.

Chowdhury, who was the Congress’s Floor Leader in the Lok Sabha, also said he raised the issue of the Matua community in Bengal. “I brought this to the attention of the PM. There are many who came from Bangladesh to our country due to fear and may not have requisite papers. They are scared because their names are being removed. They are in panic,” said the Congress leader.

The Matua community in West Bengal, a religious group from the Namasudra caste, is a political force which both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP court. However, amid widespread concern about a voter verification drive in the state, a section of Matuas have turned to the Congress for help and met Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi in Bihar in September. The meeting between the 24-member Matua delegation and the LoP took place on August 30 in the town of Ekma in Saran district.

The Matua-dominated Assembly seats accounts for a high rate of “untraceable” voters after the first phase of SIR concluded in West Bengal, a survey has shown.

According to the data collated for 15 seats by SABAR Institute, a Kolkata-based public policy research institute, Krishnaganj, Ranaghat Uttar Purba, Bagda, Gaighata, among others have a high rate of untraceable or absent voters.

Meanwhile, Chowdhury told the media that the PM said that he will think over the contents of his letter. “He said that this should not happen and that he is looking into it,” he added.

The meeting comes on a day that Union Home Minister Amit Shah took on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in Bengal and ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, scheduled for April-May next year.

In the 2021 elections, when the Congress had allied with the Left, the party couldn’t open its account when it contested 92 seats. This time, the Congress will struggle to create space in a state where the TMC and BJP are set to face-off.

Asked if there was any political meaning behind the meeting ahead of Bengal elections, Chowdhury said: “There is no political meaning to it. I came to Delhi coincidentally and met him. I came here for the CWC meeting… I thought if there is a chance to meet the PM in his office, I should go. I got the appointment and went.”