Mamata Banerjee launches 'Bhasha Andolan' from Tagore's land Bolpur

Bolpur: 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.

Banerjee had last week appealed to TMC workers to prepare for a fresh agitation from July 28, calling it a second 'Language Movement', drawing parallels with the historic 1952 protest in Dhaka (then in East Pakistan) where students sacrificed their lives demanding recognition of Bengali as an official language of Pakistan.

The United Nations later declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day to commemorate that struggle.

The chief minister's rally came amidst a politically charged atmosphere in the state following reports of alleged harassment of Bengali migrants in states like Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, which have triggered widespread concern among families back home.