Mamata Banerjee's plea turned down, Bengal Foundation Day celebrated at Raj Bhavan

Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) West Bengal Foundation Day is being celebrated at the Raj Bhavan with various colourful events marking the occasion on Tuesday ignoring Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's request to Governor C.V. Ananda Bose not to celebrate.

The programme was kicked off this morning with the parade by cadets of National Cadet Corps (NCC) which was supervised by the Governor himself. It was followed by a "peace run" and "sit & draw" competition, with the Governor being present on the occasion all the time.

In his inaugural address, the Governor said that the "West Bengal Foundation Day is celebrated at Raj Bhavan following an instruction from the Indian President Droupadi Murmu.

Late Monday evening, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had sent a communique to the Governor requesting the latter not to celebrate the "West Bengal Foundation Day" at the Governor's House on Tuesday.

"I am stunned to and shocked to know that you have decided to organise a programme on 20.06. 2023 at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, commemorating what you have peculiarly chosen to describe as 'the state foundation day of West Bengal,'" the chief minister's letter to the Governor read.

She also pointed out that since inception the people have never rejoiced or 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," the letter read.

She had also said that she strongly protests against this "historical, unconstitutional and unilateral decision" of the Union government to commemorate the "so-called Foundation Day of West Bengal" on June 20.

Political slugfest has already erupted over the chief minister's objection to the celebration of the day. According to BJP's national vice-president and the party Lok Sabha member Dilip Ghosh since every Indian state has a foundation day, the objections to celebrating that are irrational. The chief minister is making an attempt to distort history," he said.

Countering that, the Trinamool Congress state spokesman in West Bengal Kunal Ghosh said the Governor is celebrating the day to satisfy a particular political agenda. "This is a clear attempt to distort the history of West Bengal. This is against the heritage of West Bengal and hence we strongly oppose this move," he said.