West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday lashed out at Delhi Police for describing Bengali as a "Bangladeshi" language in a notice sent to
Banga Bhawan in the national capital. The document, related to a case involving suspected illegal immigrants, triggered a sharp political and cultural backlash, with Banerjee calling the reference “scandalous, insulting, anti-national, unconstitutional.” The controversy began after Banerjee shared a copy of the Delhi Police notice on her X handle. The letter, sent by an inspector from the Lodhi Colony police station to the officer-in-charge of Banga Bhawan in Chanakyapuri, sought help in translating “texts written in Bangladeshi language” into Hindi and English. The request was related to FIR No. 51/2025 involving eight alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Reacting strongly, the Chief Minister wrote, “See now how Delhi Police under the direct control of the Ministry of Home, Government of India is describing Bengali as ‘Bangladeshi’ language!”
She further said, “Bengali, our mother tongue, the language of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, the language in which our National Anthem and the National Song (the latter by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) are written, the language in which crores of Indians speak and write, the language which is sanctified and recognised by the Constitution of India, is now described as a Bangladeshi language!!”
The police case in question pertains to the arrest of eight individuals who, according to officials, were found without valid passports or visas. Authorities claimed the accused had documents such as bank papers and birth certificates written in Bengali, and were currently in judicial custody. The police notice stated, “The identification documents contain texts written in Bangladeshi and need to be translated into Hindi and English. Now, for the investigation to proceed further, it is requested that an official translator/interpreter proficient in the Bangladeshi national language may be provided for the aforesaid purpose.”
Calling the wording of the notice an affront to the entire Bengali-speaking community, Mamata Banerjee said, “This insults all Bengali speaking people of India. They cannot use this kind of language which degrades and debases us all. We urge immediate strongest possible protests from all against the anti-Bengali Govt of India who are using such anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate the Bengali-speaking people of India.”
Echoing her outrage, Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also took to X, stating, “This is not a mere clerical error, it is yet another calculated attempt by BJP to defame Bengal, undermine our cultural identity and equate West Bengal with Bangladesh for narrow political propaganda.”
He added, “It is a direct violation of Article 343 and the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. There is no language called ‘Bangladeshi’. To call Bangla a foreign language is not just an insult — it's an attack on our identity, culture and belonging. Bengalis are not outsiders in their own homeland.”
Public figures also joined the criticism. Singer Rupam Islam called out the move, writing on X: “What is this? Isn't Bangla one of the 22 official languages of India? Why must it be mentioned as Bangladeshi language? Height of ignorance and stupidity.”
