Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday declared that West Bengal is finally on the development path envisioned at the time of its creation in 1947, linking the state’s Partition-era history with its current political landscape. Addressing an event in Hooghly district to mark “Paschimbanga Divas” (West Bengal Day), Modi said attempts were made during Partition to include the entire undivided Bengal in Pakistan and alleged that the state’s past had been “whitewashed” for political reasons.
“Today’s youth must know how efforts were being made to make the entire state a part of Pakistan. After Independence it was necessary to take forward the emotions with which Bengal was saved. But efforts were made so that the people of Bengal forget the date [June 20] and the emotions attached to it,” he said.
Historical Context of Partition and June 20, 1947
On June 20, 1947, legislators from the Hindu-majority districts of undivided Bengal voted in favour of Partition and for joining the Indian Union in the Bengal legislative assembly. This pivotal vote eventually paved the way for the creation of West Bengal as a separate province within India. The decision came after intense political maneuvering during the final months of British rule, with the Muslim League demanding the inclusion of all of Bengal in Pakistan. The Hindu-majority western districts, led by figures like Syama Prasad Mookerjee, successfully argued for partition to protect the cultural and religious identity of Bengali Hindus.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who later founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the precursor to the BJP), played a crucial role in mobilizing opposition to the proposal to merge the entire province with Pakistan. His efforts are credited with ensuring that a rump West Bengal remained part of India. Modi on Saturday lauded Mookerjee’s leadership, stating that “when efforts were being made to make the whole of Bengal a part of Pakistan, Congress had bowed before conspiratorial forces. It was then that Syama Prasad Mookerjee raised his voice against it… When there was a conspiracy to separate the whole of Bengal from India, a separate West Bengal was created to thwart those designs.”
Political Controversy Over West Bengal Day
This year marked the first time that a state government in West Bengal officially observed June 20 as West Bengal Day. In 2023, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, then led by the Trinamool Congress (TMC), passed a resolution to observe Bengali New Year’s Day (Poila Baisakh, April 15) as the state’s foundation day instead. Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to then governor CV Ananda Bose urging him not to hold an event at the governor’s house on June 20. In her letter, Banerjee stated: “We in West Bengal...have seen the Partition as a result of unleashing of communal forces that could not be resisted at that point of time. The state was not founded on any particular day, least of all on any 20th of June. Contrarily, the state was formed through the infamous Radcliffe Award.”
However, with the BJP now in power in the state under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, the government has chosen to observe June 20 as West Bengal Day. Adhikari hailed the decision, posting on X: “After several long decades, for the first time, our nationalist government, inspired by the great ideals of Bharat Kesari Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, is officially observing ‘West Bengal Day’…” The move has reignited a political battle over historical interpretation, with the TMC and Congress accusing the BJP of distorting facts.
Reactions from Political Opponents
The Congress and TMC swiftly rejected Modi’s remarks. Congress leader Soumya Aich Roy said: “The Prime Minister is trying to fool the people of Bengal by giving a distorted history. The predecessors of the BJP had helped the British. His propaganda wont work in Bengal.” TMC leader Kunal Ghosh also accused Modi of distorting facts, stating: “There is no fixed foundation day for West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee consulted historians and educationists, who suggested Poila Baisakh as the state day. The BJP is now politicising the issue.”
The TMC argues that the Radcliffe Award, which demarcated the border between India and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in August 1947, is the true founding event of West Bengal, not the June 20 vote. However, the BJP counters that the vote was the decisive democratic act that allowed the creation of a Hindu-majority west Bengal.
Development Projects and PM-Kisan Scheme
During his visit, Modi also laid the foundation stone for several development projects and released the 23rd instalment of the PM-Kisan scheme worth ₹18,880 crore. He said the “double-engine government” (BJP at both centre and state) had begun working at “superfast speed” to put West Bengal on a path of recovery and development. “Decisions are being taken [by the BJP government] at lightning speed and work for stalled projects has restarted. It is in this direction that today, foundation stones have been laid and inauguration done of projects worth thousands of crores of rupees,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister also wrote a four-page letter to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, in which he extended full support from the centre and urged the state government to set short, medium and long-term targets. “I urge the West Bengal government to set short, medium and long-term targets as well, such as what will be achieved in the next few years, next decade and so on. This way, we will get a realistic assessment of the ground covered and at the same time it will strengthen the collective efforts of 140 crore Indians to build a Viksit Bharat by 2027,” Modi wrote.
Modi’s Broader Political Message
Seeking to draw a link between the BJP coming to power in the state and what he described as the original vision behind the creation of West Bengal, Modi said: “This time, ‘Paschimbanga Divas’ is even more special. The dream that was envisioned for a bright future of Bengal after Independence, today we are witnessing it turn into reality.” He alleged that successive Congress and TMC governments had neglected the state’s development and erased its true history for political gains. The Prime Minister’s remarks come amid an ongoing political rivalry between the BJP and TMC, with West Bengal heading towards assembly elections in 2026.
The event in Hooghly also highlighted the BJP’s efforts to reclaim the legacy of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, whose ideological roots are central to the party’s Hindutva narrative. Mookerjee, who served as India’s first Minister of Industry and Supply, resigned from Nehru’s cabinet over the Liaquat-Nehru Pact and later founded the Jana Sangh. His role in the Partition of Bengal is often cited by the BJP as an example of early nationalist resistance to appeasement of Pakistan.
In contrast, the Congress has been historically blamed by the BJP for the Partition, with many right-wing historians arguing that the Congress leadership, under Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, accepted the partition of India along religious lines and failed to protect Hindu interests in Bengal. Modi’s speech directly reinforced this narrative, stating that the Congress “bowed before conspiratorial forces” both in 1947 and later when it tried to “whitewash” the history of Paschimbanga Divas.
The TMC, for its part, has sought to distance itself from the Congress’s historical record while accusing the BJP of using the Partition to polarize voters. Mamata Banerjee’s earlier decision to declare Poila Baisakh as the state foundation day was seen as an attempt to assert a non-communal, cultural identity for West Bengal, rooted in Bengal’s shared heritage rather than its partition. The ongoing dispute over June 20 reflects deeper ideological divides over how the state’s origins should be remembered.
With the central government fully backing the BJP-led state administration, West Bengal is expected to see an acceleration of infrastructure projects, including highways, railways, and urban development. The PM-Kisan disbursal will benefit over 8 crore farmers nationwide, with a significant portion going to Bengal’s agricultural communities. Modi’s call for setting measurable targets aligns with his administration’s emphasis on outcome-based governance. As the political battle over history and development intensifies, the people of West Bengal will watch closely whether the promised “double-engine” growth translates into tangible improvements in their lives.
Source: MSN News