West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Tuesday went ahead with his plans to observe the ‘State Foundation Day’ despite Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressing her strong reservation against such a commemoration. A march was organised by the cadets of the National Cadets Corps (NCC) followed by a cultural programme at Raj Bhavan. The Governor also made a speech on the occasion. The Kolkata Raj Bhavan also circulated President Droupadi Murmu’s greeting to the people of Bengal on the West Bengal Foundation Day.
On Monday, the Chief Minister had written to the Governor and said that the decision to observe the ‘State Foundation Day’ had been “unilateral”, without following the procedure of obtaining necessary consent of the State Cabinet and the State Legislature, and the act “would hurt the sentiments of people and insult and defame the millions of people in West Bengal”.
Ms. Banerjee said in her letter that the people of the State have never “rejoiced over, or commemorated, or celebrated” any day as the foundation day of West Bengal and rather have seen the Partition as a result of the unleashing of communal forces that could not be resisted at that point of time”.
On June 20, 1947 the Bengal Legislative Assembly held a meeting to decide if the Bengal Presidency would stay with India or Pakistan, or be divided, having the Hindu majority districts staying with India as West Bengal and the Muslim majority areas forming East Pakistan. After hours of debate, the Bengal Legislative Council and the Bengal Legislative Assembly voted for the Partition of Bengal along religious lines into two separate entities, and the Hindu majority districts became part of West Bengal and Muslim majority districts became part of East Pakistan.
While there has been no precedence of the West Bengal Government observing the ‘State Foundation Day’, the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been observing the ‘Paschimbanga Dibas’ (‘West Bengal Day’) for the past few years, paying homage to the late Jan Sangha founder and member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly, Syama Prasad Mookerjee. On Tuesday, the BJP leadership led by the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, held a rally in Kolkata on account of ‘Paschimbanga Dibas’ and paid homage to Mookerjee.
Mr. Adhikari tweeted during the day: “This contribution of Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukhopadhya (Syama Prasad Mookerjee), the creator of West Bengal, can never be forgotten. Thanks to his efforts today we, especially the Bengali Hindus have the honor of being citizens of this great country of India and live with dignity. I wish those who distort this history, or deny the contribution of Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukhopadhyay, wake up.”
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership also held a rally in Kolkata near the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road, protesting against the Raj Bhavan’s observance of the ‘State Foundation Day’. “We condemn the decision of Hon’ble Governor C. V. Ananda Bose to commemorate the State Foundation Day of West Bengal on June 20, 2023,” the TMC said from its official Twitter handle.
The State’s ruling party added that the “partition of Bengal which was a traumatic process has left an indelible mark on the lives of millions of people” and there was no particular day on which to pin-point the State’s formation. The ruling party’s spokesperson accused the Governor of following the BJP’s agenda.
Meanwhile, later in the day, the Raj Bhavan Kolkata issued a press statement pointing out that an advisory for the commemoration of the Foundation Day of States was issued by the Government of India on May 11, and the advisory proposed the observance Foundation Days of various States and Union Territories by all Raj Bhavans.
“While preparations for the commemoration were underway, a communication was received from the State Government on the late evening of 19 June, 2023 indicating reservations about observation of West Bengal’s Foundation Day, with the request not to hold the function on 20 June, 2023. The same day, viz., on 19 June 2023, Hon’ble President of India sent her greetings to the people of West Bengal on the occasion of the celebration of Foundation Day on 20 June, 2023,” the Raj Bhavan’s communiqué said.
The office of the West Bengal Governor said that the contents of the letter received from the State government would be “treated with all seriousness” and would receive “priority attention and taken up with competent authorities for appropriate action”.
