West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has strongly condemned the Assam Foreigners Tribunal’s issuance of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) notice to Uttam Kumar Brajabasi, a 50-year-old resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar, branding it a “systematic assault on democracy.” The notice, which labels Brajabasi a suspected “illegal migrant,” has sparked a political firestorm, with Banerjee accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Assam government of overstepping its jurisdiction and targeting Bengal’s citizens.
“I am shocked and deeply disturbed to learn that the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam has issued an NRC notice to Uttam Kumar Brajabasi, a Rajbanshi, resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar for over 50 years,” Banerjee stated in a post on X. Brajabasi, a marginal farmer from Sadyaler Kuthi in Dinhata subdivision, received the notice in January 2025, alleging he illegally entered India through Assam between 1966 and 1971. The notice claimed he failed to provide valid documents during police verification, a charge Brajabasi denies, asserting he has never left Cooch Behar and possesses valid identity documents, including voter ID, Aadhaar, and ration cards.
The case has ignited outrage in West Bengal, with Banerjee framing it as part of a broader BJP agenda to impose the NRC in Bengal, where the party does not hold power. “This is nothing short of a systematic assault on democracy. It is proof that the ruling BJP dispensation in Assam is attempting to implement NRC in Bengal, where it holds no power or jurisdiction,” she said. The Chief Minister further alleged that the notice represents “a premeditated attempt to intimidate, disenfranchise, and target marginalised communities,” particularly the Rajbanshi community to which Brajabasi belongs.
Brajabasi’s lawyer, Apurba Sinha, revealed that the case against his client was initiated by the Assam government in 2015, but the notice was only delivered to the Cooch Behar district Superintendent of Police in December 2024. Sinha questioned the legality of Assam’s actions, stating, “NRC is not applicable in Bengal. How can the Assam government serve such a notice?” Brajabasi has submitted documents showing his parents’ names on the 1966 and 2008 electoral rolls, but the Foreigners Tribunal has demanded a continuous voter list from 1966 to 2008, which local authorities have been unable to provide.
North Bengal Development Minister Udayan Guha, also the Dinhata MLA, has pledged full support to Brajabasi, calling the notice “outrageous” and asserting that Brajabasi is an Indian citizen and a member of a Scheduled Caste community. “On what grounds did the SP of Kamrup district in Assam send an NRC-related letter to a citizen of Dinhata in Cooch Behar? This will not be tolerated here,” Guha said, echoing Banerjee’s sentiments.
Banerjee has long opposed the NRC, viewing it as a tool for disenfranchising vulnerable communities. Her criticism intensified following the Assam NRC’s final draft in 2019, which excluded 19 lakh people, prompting her to lead protests and vow that such an exercise would not be allowed in Bengal. In her latest statement, she described Assam’s notice to Brajabasi as an “unconstitutional overreach” that “exposes BJP’s dangerous agenda of bulldozing democratic safeguards and erasing the identity of Bengal’s people.”
Mamata Banerjee was one of the first to raise the issue of voter list duplication earlier this year, something that the Election Commission had acknowledged, Later she again protested against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise that the ECI has commissioned in Bihar ahead of the state polls, what she had termed as veiled attempt to bring NRC into the picture and disenfranchise legitimate voters owing to the tedious documentation process. TMC MP Mahua Moitra has moved to Supreme Court against that with the party calling it an attempt that will eventually be used to target Bengal. Banerjee has called for opposition unity on this issue. “This alarming situation calls for urgent unity among all Opposition parties to stand up against BJP’s divisive and oppressive machinery. Bengal will not stand by as the constitutional fabric of India is torn apart”, she concluded.
