Kolkata, September 9, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, expressing concern over reports of Bengali-speaking workers being detained in Chhattisgarh and other states on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals.
In a post on X, the former Baharampur MP said he had urged Shah to address what he described as the “arbitrary profiling” and detention of Bengali-speaking Indian workers, including those reportedly detained in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh.
Chowdhury said media reports indicated that some of those detained, including women, domestic workers and economically disadvantaged labourers, possessed valid government-issued documents such as Voter IDs and Aadhaar cards.
He alleged that despite these documents, the workers were being subjected to custodial harassment without proper verification, resulting in families being separated and constitutional rights being violated.
The Congress leader called for urgent intervention by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to stop what he termed arbitrary detentions and establish strict safeguards against linguistic profiling.
“Bengali is India’s second-most spoken language, with more than 9.72 crore speakers, and is an official language under the Eighth Schedule,” Chowdhury said, arguing that no citizen should be required to prove their patriotism merely for speaking their mother tongue.
He further remarked that if the Bengali language itself was being considered a threat, a resolution should be brought before Parliament to remove it from the Eighth Schedule.
The issue has also been raised by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam, who sought intervention from the West Bengal government and Chhattisgarh Police. He demanded the immediate release of the detained workers and an end to the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking workers from West Bengal in other states.
According to information available, the migrant workers detained in Chhattisgarh are from the Suti police station area of Murshidabad district in West Bengal. They were reportedly working as hawkers and labourers in Bilaspur district.
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