Bengal man writes ‘NRC responsible’ for his death in ‘suicide note’, Mamata says ‘indictment of BJP’s politics of fear’

While Kar was born and brought up in West Bengal, his father had migrated from Bangladesh, his family said.

The Opposition BJP has been demanding an exercise to publish the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal, on the lines of Assam, alleging that the state has been infiltrated by illegal Bangladeshis and the NRC would help weed them out.

The alleged suicide, meanwhile, triggered a political debate with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee terming the incident as an “indictment of BJP’s politics of fear and division”.

Barrackpore Police Commissioner Muralidhar Sharma, who reached Kar’s residence after coming to know about his death by alleged suicide, said a diary was recovered in which “NRC is responsible for my death” was written in one of the pages.

“The SIR was announced yesterday (Monday). According to Pradeep Kar’s family, he became restless after that. His family thought he was feeling sick. After dinner, he went to sleep in his room. In the morning, his brother’s wife called him several times but did not get any response. After that, other members of the house and neighbours came and found him hanging in his room. We have sent the body for post-mortem, and an investigation is underway,” the police chief said.

As the news of the alleged suicide spread, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a post on her X handle, wrote, “57-year-old Pradeep Kar from 4 Mahajyoti Nagar, Panihati, Khardaha (Ward No. 9) has taken his own life, leaving behind a note that says, ‘NRC is responsible for my death’. What greater indictment can there be of the BJP’s politics of fear and division?”

“It shakes me to the very core to imagine how, for years, the BJP has tormented innocent citizens with the threat of NRC, spreading lies, stoking panic, and weaponising insecurity for votes. They have turned constitutional democracy into a draconian-law regime, where people are made to doubt their own right to exist. This tragic death is the direct consequence of the 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 wrote.

Stating that she would never allow NRC in West Bengal, the chief minister added: “I demand that the Central Government stop this heartless game once and for all. Bengal will never allow NRC, and never allow anyone to strip our people of their dignity or belonging. Our soil belongs to Maa, Mati, Manush, not to those who thrive on hate. Let the Delhi Zamindars hear this loud and clear: Bengal will resist, Bengal will protect, and Bengal will prevail.”

The TMC supremo has been up in arms against the proposed SIR of electoral rolls in the state, calling it a plot of the BJP government at the Centre for “backdoor implementation of NRC” in the state.

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