Amartya Sen opposes detention of Bengal’s migrant workers in other states | Kolkata

KOLKATA: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Thursday spoke against the detention of hundreds of migrant workers from West Bengal in states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha and Delhi on the suspicion that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

“This issue is not related only to Bengal. India is a democratic nation. We will object if any Indian from any state is tortured or neglected in another state,” Sen, who lives in the US, told reporters after reaching ‘Pratichi,’ his ancestral home at Santiniketan in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.

Since most detainees have alleged that they were singled out only because they speak Bengali, Sen focused on the language.

“Bengali has a historic value. Great men like Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam gave us priceless gifts in this language. The heritage of the language cannot be ignored,” he said.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party on this issue, alleging that Bengali-speaking people were being branded as Bangladeshis for political reasons in the run-up to the 2026 state assembly polls.

“Nobody should panic. It is our duty to protect citizens. If BJP thinks this is how it can delete the names of genuine voters and win elections, as it did in Delhi and Maharashtra, then it is making a big mistake,” Banerjee said in Kolkata on July 22.

Her party, the Trinamool Congress, has launched a year-long Bhasha Andolan (language movement).