Kolkata, Aug 17 (IANS) A Trinamool Congress leader has courted a controversy after he threatened to push back BJP leaders to Bangladesh for targeting Bengali-speaking people in the country.

Trinamool’s Malda district president, Abdur Rahim Bakshi, at a party meeting on Sunday, said that after pushing back the BJP leaders to Bangladesh, he will apologise to them.

“BJP leaders say that they will push back Bengalis to Bangladesh. Let me tell such leaders that I will also hold your hair and push you to Bangladesh. To those BJP leaders who are making big statements sitting in Kolkata, I will kick them in their back and push them back to Bangladesh. Then I will also apologise to them. Then I will pretend that I didn’t understand that these BJP leaders are Bengalis. I mistakenly push these Bengali BJP leaders to Bangladesh,” said Bakshi.

The controversial statement from the Trinamool leader came in the backdrop of reports of several migrant workers from West Bengal being pushed back to Bangladesh, who were allegedly living in the country illegally. The Trinamool Congress has been raising its voice against the harassment and attacks of Bengali migrant workers across the country, and especially in BJP-ruled states.

Speaking on the issue of Bengalis being targeted for speaking in the Bengali language, as the same is spoken in neighbouring Bangladesh, the TMC leader issued such threats to BJP leaders who have been alleging that a large number of Bangladeshi Muslims and Rohingyas are living in West Bengal illegally.

The BJP was quick to slam the TMC leader for his audacious statement. BJP Lok Sabha MP from Maldaha Uttar, Khagen Murmu, said, “BJP is fighting to protect the rights of all kinds of people. So that all the people of Bengal can exercise their rights, but Trinamool is creating division among the people. It is supporting terrorists and illegal citizens. We do not support infiltration in the country and will continue to oppose any attempt to give citizenship to those who entered the country illegally.”

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress made attempts to downplay the incident.

Trinamool state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “BJP leaders have said that they will push back Bengalis to Bangladesh. Now our party leader may have said something while protesting against that. Therefore, I cannot comment further without hearing the whole story.”

–IANS

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