Subhechcha Ganguly 
West Bengal’s tribal organisations have declared a state-wide bandh for June 8 in protest of the attack on tribal minister Birbaha Hansda’s vehicle.Eight Kurmi community members, including two frontal leaders, have been detained by the Jhargram district police in West Bengal for attacking numerous automobiles in Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s convoy near Salboni on Friday night, according to officials.
The remaining guys, including Rajesh Mahato, a central committee member of the ongoing “ghagar ghera” (surround from all sides) movement calling for Scheduled Tribe (ST) designation for Kurmis, were detained on Sunday. Four men were detained on Saturday. A local judge has ordered that they remain in jail for the next 24 hours.The movement has at least six organisations as participants. The Kurmis are classified as either Scheduled Castes (SC) or Other Backward Classes (OBC) in several sections.On condition of anonymity, a district police officer said, “The accused have been charged under several non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 307 (attempt to murder).”Anup Mahato, state president of the Adivasi Negachari Kurmi Samaj, is the other detained leader.
The arrests were made after chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed at a TMC rally called Nabo Jowar (new tide) on Saturday afternoon in Salboni that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had planned the attack to reenact ethnic violence similar to that in Manipur by inciting Bengal’s Kurmis and tribals against one another.When the Kurmis staged an agitation on the road that the convoy was going through on Friday, the minister Birbaha Hansda’s vehicle was destroyed, her driver was hurt, and several policeman also sustained injuries.
My Kurmi brothers didn’t do it, Mamata Banerjee stated. The attack was conducted by the BJP using their flags. So many people have died as a result of the ethnic conflict the BJP instigated in Manipur. In Bengal, they intend to accomplish the same goal by making Kurmis and tribal people enemies. Some local leaders have received large sums of money from the BJP in order to incite ethnic conflict. The adivasi (tribal) woman Birbaha was attacked. Our executive branch will act.”It was an effort to kill us. Hansda stated right away following the tragedy that the Kurmi leaders who are in charge of the movement cannot avoid blame.A state-wide bandh will be celebrated on June 8 in California, according to an announcement made on Sunday by the United Adivasi Forum, an umbrella group for Santhal, Lodha, and other tribal organisations.
