Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has strongly condemned the Delhi Police for allegedly referring to Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language,” calling it a direct insult to the very language in which the National Anthem was written.
Backing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Stalin said such statements were not mere slips but a reflection of a regime that undermines India’s linguistic diversity.
Taking to social media platform X, Stalin stated, “The Delhi Police, under the Union Home Ministry, has described Bengali as a ‘Bangladeshi language.’ This is a direct insult to the language of our National Anthem. Such statements aren’t inadvertent. They reflect the dark mindset of a regime that consistently weaponises identity.”
He lauded Mamata Banerjee for standing as a shield for Bengali speakers and warned that such attacks on non-Hindi languages will not go unanswered.
Mamata Banerjee had earlier shared a letter purportedly from Delhi Police and accused them of labeling Bengali — spoken by crores in India and enshrined in the Constitution — as a foreign language. She termed it “scandalous, anti-national and unconstitutional.”
In response, BJP leader Amit Malviya hit back, accusing Mamata of stoking linguistic tensions. He claimed the Delhi Police letter referred only to the language used by infiltrators and never described Bengali as a Bangladeshi language. Calling her reaction “dangerously inflammatory,” Malviya said she should be held accountable, possibly even under the National Security Act.
CPI(M) leader Md. Salim also criticized the Delhi Police, questioning their knowledge of the Constitution’s 8th Schedule and sarcastically calling them “illiterate” for using such terminology.
