A letter from Delhi Police referring to Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language” has triggered a fierce political row, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee calling it “scandalous, insulting, anti-national, and unconstitutional.” The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya traded sharp blows over the issue, with the ruling party in Bengal accusing the Centre of insulting Bengali identity, while the BJP dismissed the outrage as “vote-bank politics” and misinformation.
At the centre of the controversy is a purported letter from Delhi Police addressed to Banga Bhawan, West Bengal’s guest house in the national capital, seeking help with translation for eight individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In the letter, the language of the documents was referred to as “Bangladeshi language.”
Reacting strongly, Mamata Banerjee said, “See now how Delhi Police under the direct control of Ministry of Home, Government of India is describing Bengali as ‘Bangladeshi’ language! Bengali, our mother tongue, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, the language in which our National Anthem and the National Song... are written... is now described as a Bangladeshi language!! This insults all Bengali-speaking people of India. They cannot use this kind of language which degrades and debases us all.”
Calling it a direct attack on Bengali identity, she further added, “We urge immediate strongest possible protests from all against the anti-Bengali Government of India who are using such anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate the Bengali-speaking people of India.”
TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee echoed the sentiment, calling the letter “a shocking escalation” and demanded an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, under whose ministry the Delhi Police functions.“For months now, Bengali-speaking people have been targeted, harassed, and detained across BJP-ruled states,” he said, alleging a deliberate attempt to “undermine Bengali identity” and “equate Indian Bengalis with foreigners."
Krishnanagar TMC MP Mahua Moitra also weighed in, calling the reference to Bengali as “Bangladeshi” on official documentation a “calculated action” and demanded an unconditional apology.
Even the TMC’s long-time rival, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), joined in to condemn the move. The CPM stated, “Bengali is spoken by millions in India. But Delhi Police thinks Bengali = Bangladeshi,” calling the act “criminalisation of language and identity.”
Bengali artists, too, expressed outrage. Director Srijit Mukherji wrote, “That’s not Bangladeshi language… that’s Bangla or Bengali. The same language in which your national anthem was originally written and one of the 22 official languages of India.”
Singer Surojit Chatterjee said he was “not surprised” and termed the letter an example of “ignorance” from those in charge.
The BJP, however, dismissed the criticism, claiming the outrage was based on a misreading of the letter.
Amit Malviya, BJP IT cell chief, hit back, accusing Mamata Banerjee of inciting unrest. “Mamata Banerjee’s reaction… is not just misplaced, it is dangerously inflammatory,” he said. “Nowhere in the Delhi Police letter is Bangla or Bengali described as a ‘Bangladeshi’ language. To claim otherwise and call upon Bengalis to rise against the Centre is deeply irresponsible," he added.
Malviya clarified that the term “Bangladeshi language” was used in the context of identifying illegal immigrants and was not a comment on the Indian variant of the language. “Delhi Police is absolutely right in referring to the language as Bangladeshi in the context of identifying infiltrators. The term is being used to describe a set of dialects, syntax, and speech patterns that are distinctly different from the Bangla spoken in India,” he explained.
He added that dialects such as Sylheti, spoken in Bangladesh, can often be incomprehensible to Indian Bengali speakers and argued that “Bengali” is not a monolithic linguistic identity. “There is, in fact, no language called ‘Bengali’ that neatly covers all these variants. ‘Bengali’ denotes ethnicity, not linguistic uniformity,” he wrote. “Such nuances are clearly lost on the poorly lettered Mamata Banerjee,” he added.
Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya accused the TMC of “fear-mongering” and “shielding” illegal immigrants, stating that the party was deliberately misinterpreting the letter to stir unrest among Indian Bengalis.
