KOLKATA: CM Mamata Banerjee hit out at Delhi Police on Sunday over a notice issued to Banga Bhawan in the national capital seeking help to translate “Bangladeshi language” for an ongoing trial. The trial relates to eight suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who had been arrested by Lodhi Colony police.The CM called the notice, “Scandalous, insulting, anti-national, unconstitutional,” and called upon all sections of society to rise in protest against the repeated “insult and humiliation” of Bengali-speaking people in India.The notice, posted by CM on her X handle, showed a Lodhi Colony inspector’s requisition to Banga Bhavan officer-in-charge in Chanakyapuri, seeking help to translate “texts written in Bangladeshi language” in Hindi and English.“See now how Delhi Police under the direct control of the Ministry of Home, Government of India is describing Bengali as “Bangladeshi” language!” the CM wrote.“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!!”The notice uploaded by CM Banerjee refers to Lodhi Colony police station FIR no 51/2025. Case details mention eight suspected illegal Bangladeshis being arrested. According to the police, the accused did not have valid passports or visas.Police said the suspects were in possession of copies of IDs such as bank account information and birth certificates. The suspects are currently in jail on the basis of a court order, police said.The notice uploaded by the CM read: “The identification documents contain texts written in Bangladeshi and need to be translated into Hindi and English. Now, for the investigation to proceed further, it is requested that an official translator/interpreter proficient in the Bangladeshi national language may be provided for the aforesaid purpose.” The notice promises to pay for translation bills.CM Banerjee said, “This insults 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 Govt of India who are using such anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate the Bengali-speaking people of India.”Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool’s national general secretary, also protested the notice, writing on X: “This is not a mere clerical error, it is yet another calculated attempt by BJP to defame Bengal, undermine our cultural identity and equate West Bengal with Bangladesh for narrow political propaganda.”“It is a direct violation of Article 343 and the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. There is no language called ‘Bangladeshi’. To call Bangla a foreign language is not just an insult — it’s an attack on our identity, culture and belonging. Bengalis are not outsiders in their own homeland,” he added.Singer Rupam Islam too spoke out against the notice. “What is this? Isn’t Bangla one of the 22 official languages of India? Why must it be mentioned as Bangladeshi language? Height of ignorance and stupidity,” he wrote on X.
