Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee will hold her second ‘Bhasha Andolon’ (language movement) rally in tribal dominated Jhargram on August 6.
Following the instructions of Banerjee, her party has initiated a protest against the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in BJP-ruled states.
Political observers believe that the venue of the second language movement by the TMC supremo was strategically chosen.
Jhargram has immense historical significance because of the Santhali movement against British rule in India in the 1920s on agrarian grounds. The first venue of the protest movement was Bolpur in Birbhum, which is associated with Rabindranath Tagore. Banerjee had carried out the Bolpur rally on June 28.
According to sources, Banerjee would lead a procession from Rajbari intersection at Jhargram to Circus Maidan. She would be accompanied by members of tribal communities, social organisations, intellectuals and scholars from Jangalmahal area. The current state government has carried out a host of development schemes. The various social welfare schemes of the state government have uplifted the socio-economic conditions of the people in Jangalmahal. The tribal-dominated pockets of Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, and West Midnapore were allegedly neglected for many years during the erstwhile Left Front government.
Besides language movement, the Chief Minister may hold administrative meetings during her Jangalmahal tour, sources said. She may inaugurate various new projects
in the region.
State urban development and municipal affairs minister, and senior TMC leader, Firhad Hakim already held a meeting to make preparations for the upcoming language movement programmes of the TMC supremo, including an event on the occasion of World Indigenous Peoples’ Day, on August 9.
Trinamool Congress district president in Jhargram and party legislators like Dulal Murmu, Debnath Hansda, Khagendranath Mahato and the party’s top leader from the Jangalmahal area were present at the recent preparatory meeting convened by Hakim.
Sources said that Hakim will reach Jhargram a day in advance for the final preparations of Banerjee’s procession.
From her party’s July 21 Martyr’s Day rally in Kolkata, Banerjee vowed to fight against the atrocities on Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states. She also announced that ‘Bhasha Andolan’ would be carried out to protest the incidents of harassment. Banerjee accused the BJP of orchestrating attacks on the Bengali-speaking people to create a sense of fear.