‘Like Nazi Germany’: TMC MP Mahua Moitra slams BJP’s crackdown on Bengali migrant workers

Published on Authored by C to I News Desk

A police verification drive in Gurugram aimed at identifying undocumented immigrants has led to the sudden departure of hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrant families, sparking a storm of political outrage and allegations of targeted harassment. While the Haryana government maintains the campaign is necessary for national security, many political leaders and rights groups have called it discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Mahua Moitra MP
TMC MP Mahua Moitra. Photo courtesy: Screengrab from X

Among the most vocal critics is Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who says this is not an isolated incident but part of a larger, coordinated action across BJP-ruled states.

Moitra, speaking to Aditi Prasad, The Times of India’s Digital Videos head, claimed the crackdown began with a “secret and illegal” Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification dated 2 May 2025, sent only to BJP-ruled states.

“The Foreigners Act doesn’t allow you to detain Indian nationals. What they’ve done here is they’ve said you can basically detain anybody up to 30 days, which is completely ultra vires the Constitution,” she said.

Moitra alleged that the circular gave states the power to detain people on suspicion alone, bypassing standard identification and verification procedures. “This isn’t just Gurgaon. We’ve seen this in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh — always targeting Bengali-speaking migrant workers,” she said.

In Gurugram, the immediate impact has been visible in shanty settlements around South City 2 in Sector 47, near Park Hospital, where hundreds of families have fled in recent weeks, a Hindustan Times report said.

These workers, many of whom have lived in the city for over a decade, claim they were picked up without warning, even when they showed valid documents like Aadhaar or voter cards. “Police came to our settlement late at night. Even though I showed my Aadhaar card, they said it needed to be verified in Bengal,” said Imran Ali, a 32-year-old construction worker from Murshidabad, as quoted by the HT. “My wife got scared, packed our things, and we left that same night.”

Moitra has accused the Gurugram police of conducting the drive without transparency, using plainclothes officers and creating informal detention centres. “We’ve seen community centres in Sector 10A and Sector 24 being used as detention camps. They are picking people up, not even looking at their Aadhaar cards, switching off their phones and taking them away,” she said. “People are huddling in fear, children aren’t going to school, workers aren’t going to their jobs.”

“This is completely like Nazi Germany, where on the basis of linguistic identity, people are being identified and denied due process of law and it’s reverse on us. The burden is on you — prove you’re not Bangladeshi. They are saying, ‘Here, we are Indian, this is our Aadhaar card,’ and they are taking it for granted that that’s not valid and saying, ‘No, you’re Bangladeshi’,” Moitra said.

Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed echoed these concerns, saying the campaign appears to be disproportionately targeting Muslim residents. “This campaign… has turned into a tool for communal victimisation,” he said. “Even individuals with valid documents have been detained and forced to leave.” He added that he has raised the matter with senior police officials who have assured him that no Indian citizen will be harassed.

But many on the ground feel otherwise. “Even those with Aadhaar and voter cards are being detained. Police arrive without warning and take people away. Some were even beaten,” claimed a migrant from a Sector 47 settlement, speaking anonymously out of fear.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has stood firmly behind the verification campaign. “There is no place for Bangladeshi infiltrators in Haryana; they are being removed as swiftly as possible,” he said, calling the action necessary to uphold India’s unity and constitutional order.

Haryana BJP spokesperson Arvind Saini added, “This is not about religion or language — it’s about national interest and lawful residency. The Congress is raising baseless concerns because their traditional vote bank is being affected.”

Moitra, however, directly accused the BJP of using national security as a tool for discrimination. She also highlighted the broader context of migration from Bengal. “My district, for example, Nadia, has 3 to 5 lakh migrant labourers across India. Maybe 50,000 from my own district are in Gurgaon alone. Many have been living there for 10 to 15 years,” Moitra said. “They are not illegal.”

She pointed out that during the COVID-19 lockdown, states like West Bengal and Bihar created official portals to register their migrant workers. “We have 22 lakh migrants from Bengal registered in other states. These people have identification, they are part of the system.”

The TMC MP said the right process, if any verification is needed, is to collect documents and send them to the home state for confirmation. “If they are verified, they are verified. If they are not, deportation proceedings can begin. What is happening now is lawless and terrifying,” she said.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Pankaj Dawar said the migrants being targeted are mostly long-time residents working as domestic workers and daily wage labourers. “They consider Gurugram their home. But now, their lives have been thrown into chaos.”

Haryana Police have denied any communal or linguistic motive. Gurugram police spokesperson Sandeep Kumar said the operation is based on legal procedure and intelligence inputs. “We are ensuring that no Indian citizen is harassed,” he said.

But the damage, both emotional and economic, is already being felt by the affected families. Imran Ali, now living in Delhi’s Seelampur with relatives, says he doesn’t know if he can ever return. “We didn’t come here to break the law — we came to work hard and feed our families,” he said.

As the political firestorm grows, the issue is no longer limited to just Gurugram or Haryana. It has become a flashpoint in a broader debate about migration, identity, and the limits of state power. “This is not just a law enforcement issue anymore,” said Aftab Ahmed. “It’s a test of how inclusive and just we remain as a society.”

ECI slams misinformation on electoral rolls

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has strongly objected to what it called misinformation being spread about the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

The ECI clarified that the list recently released is only a draft, not the final voter list, and said it is unclear why some people are creating “a big fuss” when a full one-month window is available for corrections. The revision comes ahead of the Bihar assembly election, expected around November.

In a statement, the ECI said the draft list is part of the regular SIR process and voters have time from August 1 to September 1 to raise claims or objections. “Why not ask their 1.6 lakh BLAs to submit claims and objections from August 1 till September 1?” the Commission asked, referring to booth-level agents of political parties. It added that 36 lakh people were found to have shifted or were not traceable during house-to-house surveys. Over 7 lakh voters were also found to be enrolled in more than one location.

Opposition parties in Bihar have alleged that eligible voters may be excluded due to document issues, accusing the ruling BJP of misusing the process. In response, the BJP said the INDIA bloc was trying to protect infiltrators and misuse democracy.