Mamata to Bose: Foundation Day event will rekindle bitter memories

The CM also described the step as “unprecedented” and one which was taken “unilaterally without following any procedure of obtaining necessary consent of the state Cabinet and the state legislature.”

Mamata Banerjee, CV ananda Bose, bengal Foundation Day event, west bengal news, Raj Bhavan decision criticism, indian express, indian express news

Scrap it, decision taken unilaterally, writes CM

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Criticising Raj Bhavan’s decision to hold a programme to mark West Bengal’s Foundation Day “unilaterally”, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Governor C V Ananda Bose on Monday and said the state was created through a “painful” process that uprooted millions of families. She also requested the Governor to cancel the programme, as it would “rekindle bitter memories of crores of people” in the state.

The Raj Bhavan has planned to hold a programme on June 20 to commemorate West Bengal’s foundation.

In her letter, Banerjee wrote that West Bengal was carved out of the undivided State of Bengal in 1947 “through a painful and traumatic process”.

“The process involved uprooting millions of people across the border and death and replacement of innumerable families. The economy of Bengal was destroyed and the truncated State of West Bengal suffered a sudden disruption of communication and infrastructure, too,” the letter stated.

The CM wrote that the decision to carve out West Bengal was seen as a “historical necessity” at that point of time. “The state was not founded on any particular day, least of all on June 20. Contrarily, the state was formed through the infamous Radcliffe Award, which was given legitimacy by the departing colonial/imperial government,” she wrote.

“Since Independence, we in West Bengal have never commemorated or celebrated any day as the Foundation Day of West Bengal. Rather, we have seen the Partition as a result of unleashing of communal forces that could not be resisted at that point of time,” Banerjee stated.

The CM also described the step as “unprecedented” and one which was taken “unilaterally without following any procedure of obtaining necessary consent of the state Cabinet and the state legislature.”

“This act on your part would hurt the sentiments or poodle and insult and defame the millions of people in West Bengal today… We strongly protest against this unconstitutional and unilateral decision of the Government of India to commemorate the so-called Foundation Day of West Bengal on June 20.” She requested the Governor to not to hold any such programme as it will “rekindle the bitter memories of crores of people in West Bengal and re-incite undesirable forces.”