“The idea that saved West Bengal was the very idea that should have guided the state after Independence.
Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened. Efforts were made to make people forget Paschimbanga Divas,” PM Narendra Modi said in a Paschimbanga Divas event in Tarakeswar, Hooghly on Saturday, June 20.
"The history of West Bengal was suppressed. The contribution of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who founded the Jana Sangh, was denied. Attempts were also made to erase the principles on which he had fought for Bengal', the prime minister said.
June 20th (2026), Saturday, marked the first official celebration as Paschimbanga Divas by the new BJP government.
Tarakeswar is where Syama Prasad Mookerjee had, from April 4 to 7 in 1947, organised a conference that adopted a resolution saying the Hindu-majority part of Bengal — today’s West Bengal — would not become a part of East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh).
On June 20, 1947, the Bengal Assembly passed a resolution endorsing the decision.
However, of the 79 legislators representing Hindu-dominated districts who were present and voted on the resolution in the Assembly, 58 favoured West Bengal remaining in India. They were from the Congress, Communist Party of India, and the Hindu Mahasabha.
Mookerjee was the lone Hindu Mahasabha representative in the Assembly.
Thanks to persistent Muslim-appeasement of Congress and Left; the BJP has all along claimed that had Mookerjee not intervened, present-day West Bengal would have become part of East Pakistan.
In 2023, the Centre notified June 20 as Paschimbanga Divas and the day witnessed official celebrations nationwide, including events at the various Raj Bhavans.
At Tarakeswar on Saturday, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari accused the previous state government headed by Mamata Banerjee of taking steps to deliberately suppress the history of West Bengal’s formation and Mookerjee’s role.
Modi, in his half-hour speech, praised Mookerjee effusively and accused the Congress of surrendering before forces that had conspired to include the whole of Bengal in East Pakistan.
“When attempts were being made to make the whole of Bengal a part of Pakistan, the Congress had knelt before those conspirators. It was at that very moment that Syama Prasad Mookerjee raised his voice against it,” he said.
“We must repeatedly explain the importance of Paschimbanga Day to the younger generation. They must betold what happened during that period.”
Modi added that Bengal had witnessed violence and bloodshed but remained a part of India.
ends
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