Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has approached the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, alleging that senior Muslim IAS and IPS officers in West Bengal were excluded from official events attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visits to the state. Moitra has sought an explanation from the Government of India over the alleged incidents and urged the UN body to examine the matter.
In her letter to Prof Nicolas Levrat, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Moitra alleged that three senior officers were either prevented from attending or asked to leave official programmes during Shah’s visits in July and August. She identified the officers as Siliguri Police Commissioner Waquar Raza, West Bengal Police Special Task Force chief Jawed Shamim and senior IAS officer Khalil Ahmed.
Mahua Moitra Seeks UN Intervention
Moitra alleged that the officers were treated differently from colleagues of other faiths and described the incidents as a pattern of what she called “deliberate exclusion”. She has asked the UN Special Rapporteur to seek details from the Indian government regarding the reasons and authority behind the alleged decisions.
She has also sought preservation of CCTV footage, tour diaries and other official records relating to Shah’s visits, according to reports. Her submission cites provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The move comes weeks after Moitra raised similar allegations on social media. In a post on X, she had alleged that Muslim officers were deliberately kept out of an event involving Shah in north Bengal and questioned whether their religion was the reason. The post subsequently led to a complaint, following which Diamond Harbour cybercrime police summoned the TMC MP for questioning over allegations that her remarks could promote communal discord.
Moitra has maintained that her concerns relate to the treatment of senior government officials and has now taken the issue beyond the state, approaching the UN mechanism dealing with minority rights.
The allegations regarding the exclusion of the officers have not been independently established in the material currently available. Reports citing Moitra's complaint describe her account of the incidents, while no official explanation from the Union government or Amit Shah's office confirming that the officers were excluded because of their religion has been cited in those reports.
The controversy comes amid heightened political tensions in West Bengal, with the functioning of the state administration and the role of senior officials becoming increasingly prominent in political exchanges between the TMC and BJP.
