West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to strongly take up with Dhaka the issue of the vandalisation of Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral house in Bangladesh’s Sirajganj district.

She described the incident as a “vile attack” on India’s cultural legacy and a matter of national shame.

“This is not merely the desecration of a house,” Mamata wrote in her letter, “but an onslaught on a fountain of creativity that gave birth to some of Tagore’s finest works.”

The letter follows reports that a mob vandalised parts of the Rabindra Kachharibari, now a memorial museum, on June 8 over a dispute regarding parking fees.

What began as an altercation between a visitor and museum staff allegedly escalated into physical assault, local protests, and eventually, violence that damaged the auditorium and left a director injured.

Bangladesh authorities have formed a three-member probe panel and registered a case against 50–60 individuals, including 10 named accused. The museum has temporarily been shut down.

Mamata urged Modi to ensure “a strong international protest,” and asked that Bangladesh be pressed to “swiftly bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous and mindless act.”

“For the people of Bengal, this is an attack on a shared legacy,” Mamata wrote, adding that Tagore’s ancestral roots were entwined with the spirit of Bengali literature and the Swadeshi movement. “To strike at that is to strike at the soul of our region.”

Earlier, the BJP lashed out at Mamata for what it called a “delayed and calculated response.”

At a press conference, BJP MP Sambit Patra said the vandalism was a “preplanned attack” orchestrated by radical groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam, and accused Mamata of being silent until now due to “vote-bank politics”.

“This press conference should have been hers,” said Patra. “But she didn’t do it because she believes some across-the-border groups might form part of her electoral base.”

He added that Tagore, who penned the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh, was a global figure, and “an attack on his home is an attack on the very idea of cultural unity.”

Patra also criticised the Bangladesh interim government led by Muhammad Yunus for its “lack of response” and said it had “sent a poor message to the world.”