West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched her much-publicised ‘Bhasha Andolan’ (Language Movement) from Bolpur in Birbhum district in protest against alleged attacks on Bengali-speaking migrants across the country.The TMC chief had earlier termed the alleged attacks as an attempt to erase Bengali identity from the national fabric.
The protest march, rich in symbolism and emotion, commenced from the Tourist Lodge crossing and culminated at Jamboni bus stand, a three-kilometre stretch in the heart of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s land.
Holding a portrait of Tagore in her hand, Banerjee led the procession, waving at crowds that lined both sides of the road.
Party workers sang Pratul Mukhopadhyay’s iconic protest anthem “Ami Banglay Gaan Gai”, while women in white-and-red saris blew conch shells, lending a distinctly Bengali cultural flavour to the rally.
Wearing her trademark cotton sari and a traditional uttariya (scarf) of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, Banerjee was flanked by senior TMC leaders and ministers as she led the march, the first in a series of such agitations planned across the state.
Political observers see the choice of Bolpur, the land of Tagore and the cultural nerve centre of Bengal, as deeply symbolic.