The PM participated in a grand function to celebrate the State day, along with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Ministers, MLAs, government functionaries and the general public, on June 20, 2026. Photo: X/@narendramodi
Decades of misrule had held West Bengal back, and with the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State, Bengal is free of shackles and on the path to creating history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday (June 20, 2026).
Mr. Modi, who participated in an event to mark Paschim Banga Dibas at Tarakeswar in Hooghly district, congratulated the Suvendu Adhikari government on implementing several schemes like Ayushman Bharat, Annapurna Yojana and Jal Jeevan Mission.
The Prime Minister also asked the gathering, “Paribortan Bhalo lagche to (Do you like the change)?”
Mr. Modi spoke about how land for border fencing has been made available by the BJP government after decades of imbroglio. He also praised the West Bengal government’s “Swachhata Se Swagat” initiative.
“The glory of West Bengal will return, and the State is taking strides towards a new future,” Mr. Modi said.
The Prime Minister’s visit to Tarakeswar is the second visit to the State after the BJP came to power, winning more than two-thirds of the seats in the 2026 Assembly elections. Mr. Modi had participated in the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and five other Cabinet Ministers on May 9.
In his first address to the people of West Bengal after the Assembly poll victory, Mr. Modi said that the double-engine government is working for the people of the State. “The double-engine government has started working at a superfast pace. Decisions are being made at lightning speed, and work on stalled projects has begun moving forward,” he said.
The Prime Minister devoted much of his 30-minute speech to highlighting the significance of Paschim Banga Dibas and said that the day should remind the younger generation of the history of the State and ensure that the same mistakes of the earlier government are not repeated.
“We need to repeatedly explain the significance of Paschim Banga Divas to today’s generation. It is important for young people to understand what was happening during that period when attempts were being made to include the whole of Bengal in Pakistan, as the Congress had surrendered before those conspirators,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr. Modi also claimed that the Congress left West Bengal as an orphan during the Partition and indulged in appeasement politics after Independence.
After coming to power in the State, the BJP government announced that it would observe June 20 as Paschim Banga Dibas. On June 20, 1947, Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee moved a proposal in the Bengal Legislative Assembly for the partition of Bengal, which paved the way for the creation of a “homeland for Hindus of Bengal”. During the Trinamool regime, Poila Baishakh, the first day of the Bengali New Year, was observed as Paschim Banga Dibas.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was present at the event, said that Syama Prasad Mookerjee had organised a conference in Tarakeswar in April 1947, demanding western part of Bengal be made a homeland for “Bengali Hindus”. Mr. Adhikari said the BJP government would observe the birth and death anniversaries of the Jana Sangh founder and erect a 125-feet statue of the BJP’s ideological fountainhead in Kolkata.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will spend the night at Lok Bhawan in Kolkata and participate in the celebrations of the 12th International Day of Yoga on Sunday. The event will be held on Kolkata’s Red Road, and about 35,000 people are likely to participate. Several installations in Kolkata, along with the riverfront, have been decked up with bright lights on the eve of International Day of Yoga.
Published – June 20, 2026 06:05 pm IST
