Why is PM Modi silent on attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus, TMC asks

West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of maintaining a conspicuous silence on attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh, while insisting that the West Bengal ruling party has consistently spoken up for minorities across the border.

The state's industries and women and child development minister Dr Shashi Panja said the state BJP was attempting to manufacture a narrative that the TMC had failed to condemn atrocities against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, even as reports of violence there have mounted in recent months.

“We condemn the killing of Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh in the strongest terms and stand by the brothers and sisters of the Hindu community in Bangladesh,” Panja told reporters in Kolkata.

"Yet one question echoes louder than all else, why is India’s prime minister silent amid this bloodshed? The BJP government, which never tires of politicising Hindutva, has chosen complete silence over the brutal burning alive of Dipu Chandra Das. What is the point of creating a ruckus in Kolkata? This calculated silence from the ministries of external affairs and home affairs exposes the truth: for the BJP, Hindutva is not a belief, it is a vote-catching weapon," she added.

Her remarks come against the backdrop of renewed concern over the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh, where incidents of targeted attacks, vandalism of temples, and intimidation of minority communities have periodically flared up.

Rights groups and opposition parties in India have pointed to episodes of communal violence, particularly during periods of political unrest, alleging that Hindu neighbourhoods and places of worship have been singled out amid wider instability. While Dhaka has often maintained that such incidents are isolated and not state-sponsored, the issue remains politically sensitive in India, especially in border states like West Bengal.

Panja claimed that neither Modi nor Union home minister Amit Shah had been vocal against what she described as atrocities on the Hindu community in the neighbouring country. She also questioned the role of India’s external affairs establishment in responding to the situation.

“The ministry of external affairs must clarify what steps it is taking in response to these untoward incidents in a neighbouring country,” she said, accusing the Centre of selective outrage.

Turning to domestic issues, Panja pointed out that a migrant labourer from West Bengal had been killed in Odisha’s Sambalpur district and linked the incident to a wider pattern of hostility towards Bengali-speaking workers in various BJP-ruled states in recent times.

“Three youths from Suti block in Murshidabad district were attacked in Odisha on the allegation that they were Bangladeshis since they spoke Bengali,” Panja claimed. She said one of them died while two others were seriously injured and were undergoing treatment at a local hospital in Odisha. “We condemn the incident,” the TMC minister added.

She further alleged that Bengali-speaking migrant workers were facing harassment and violence in several states on the pretext that they were Bangladeshi nationals, and accused the BJP of remaining silent on the issue.

Panja also took a swipe at the BJP over its slogan ‘Banchte chai, BJP tai’ (want to live, so want BJP), used at PM Modi’s recent rally in Ranaghat in Nadia district, and asked whether the slogan implied that “if one wants to live, he must join the saffron party”.

Meanwhile, Odisha Police sought to play down the communal angle in the Sambalpur killing, saying 30-year-old migrant worker Juel Sheikh from West Bengal was allegedly killed following an altercation over a beedi.

Odisha’s IGP (northern range) Himansu Kumar Lal said six persons had been arrested in connection with the incident and asserted that the murder had nothing to do with whether the “victim was a Bengali or Bangladeshi”.

With PTI inputs