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Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee targeted the Centre on Tuesday after a 57-year-old man died by suicide in North 24 Parganas district’s Agarpara, leaving a note holding the National Register of Citizens (NRC) responsible for his death.
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“It shakes me to the very core to imagine how, for years, BJP has tormented innocent citizens with the threat of NRC, spreading lies, stoking panic and weaponizing insecurity for votes. They have turned constitutional democracy into a draconian law-regime, where people are made to doubt their own right to exist,” the chief minister wrote on X.
“This tragic death is the direct consequence of BJP’s venomous propaganda. Those who sit in Delhi and preach nationalism have pushed ordinary Indians to such despair that they are dying in their own land, fearing they will be declared ‘FOREIGNERS,’” she added.
In 2023, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in its election manifesto for the Karnataka state polls that it would implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and NRC if it retained power. In Bengal, however, the party has been silent on implementation of NRC in the state since the 2021 assembly polls.
The North 24 Parganas police said the victim appeared to have been doing his own research on NRC and maintained notes in the diary found near his body
State minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, who visited the victim’s residence in the afternoon, said, “We talked to his relatives and found that he was living in constant fear. He was afraid that he might be declared an alien if NRC was enforced in Bengal. He panicked yesterday when the Election Commission of India announced special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bengal.”
Joydeep Bhowmick, a neighbour of the victim, said: “The police were informed as he was not responding to calls. They broke into the flat and found his body hanging. There was a diary nearby where he wrote that the NRC was responsible for his death.”
“He was born in Bangladesh but he came to India decades ago. He obtained his Aadhaar card before most people did in this area. His name is also there in the electoral roll. We can’t understand why he took his life,” Bhowmick said.
No Bengal BJP leader commented on the incident till this story was published.
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