Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of treating persons from West Bengal as “infiltrators”, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that residents of a settlement occupied predominantly by Bengali migrant workers in New Delhi are being forcibly evicted.

“Speaking Bengali does not make one a Bangladeshi,” she said.

In a post on X, the Trinamool Congress chief said that she was “deeply disturbed by the alarming news of harassment” faced by Bengali-speaking migrant workers living in Jai Hind Colony in Vasant Kunj.

The chief minister claimed that their water supply was cut off on orders from the BJP government in Delhi. In addition, their electricity meters were confiscated and power was abruptly shut off on Tuesday, she claimed.

“Residents also claim Delhi Police, backed by RAF [Rapid Action Force] personnel, blocked private water tankers they had arranged and paid for,” Banerjee said.

The forced eviction was underway despite the matter being pending in court, the chief minister claimed. “How can we claim to be a democratic republic if the basic right to shelter, water and electricity were being trampled upon,” she asked.

Banerjee said that there were more than 1.5 crore migrant workers in West Bengal who “lived with dignity”. “But the same cannot be said for BJP-ruled states, where Bengalis are being treated as infiltrators in their own country,” she said.

The Trinamool Congress chief said that the migrant workers were as much citizens of India as anyone else, regardless of what language they spoke.

“Having failed in their attempts to deprive Bengalis in West Bengal, BJP is now exporting their Bangla-Birodhi agenda to other parts of the country in a strategic and systemic manner,” she said, adding that reports had emerged from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh that Bengali-speaking persons were facing “targeted persecution”.

“We will not remain silent while people from Bengal are treated like trespassers in their own country,” she said. “We will raise this issue in every possible forum.”

Banerjee’s statement came two days after Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha also claimed that the residents of Jai Hind Colony were being evicted. He added that Bengali Muslims working as domestic and sanitation workers predominantly lived in the area.

“They allege that their water connection has been stopped by Jal Board upon directions by Delhi government and today morning all electricity connection in the colony has been cut off and meters seized,” Jha said on X. “If true, doesn’t it cross all norms of governance and rule of law in any society that cares to call itself a democracy? This is just the very opposite of a civilised society.”

The Rashtriya Janata Dal MP said there were reports that the Delhi Police had conducted “some kind of document verification” in December. “The locals allege that they are being evicted even as their cases are pending in court,” he added.

Banerjee’s allegations came nearly a month after four men from West Bengal, who had been picked up by the Maharashtra Police and “pushed” into Bangladesh, were brought back on June 15. The Murshidabad Police in West Bengal had presented proof of them being Indian citizens.

Over the past month, Indian authorities have been pursuing a policy to “push” individuals claimed to be undocumented migrants into Bangladesh. India has “pushed back” more than 2,000 persons into Bangladesh since the country launched “Operation Sindoor”, a military operation against terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The legality of the “push back” policy has been debated in India and internationally. Experts have told Scroll that the policy violated India’s obligations under international law and customary international law.