Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of "whitewashing" the history of the birth of present-day West Bengal and said a "new history" would be written inspired by Paschimbanga Divas.

“History has been whitewashed for the sake of a political agenda. The Congress, which had abandoned Bengal during Partition, adopted a politics of appeasement," Modi told a Paschimbanga Divas event in Tarakeswar, Hooghly.

“The history of West Bengal was suppressed. The contribution of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who founded the Jana Sangh, was denied. Attempts were also made to erase the principles on which he had fought for Bengal.”

He added: “On this Paschimbanga Divas, it’s our responsibility to resolve that we will no longer carry forward those mistakes of history. Inspired by Paschimbanga Divas, a new history will be written.”

Saturday marked the first official celebration of June 20 as Paschimbanga Divas by the new BJP government.

Tarakeswar is where Mookerjee had, from April 4 to 7 in 1947, organised a conference that adopted a resolution saying the Hindu-majority part of Bengal — today’s West Bengal — would not become a part of East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh).

On June 20, 1947, the Bengal Assembly passed a resolution endorsing the decision.

However, of the 79 legislators representing Hindu-dominated districts who were present and voted on the resolution in the Assembly, 58 favoured West Bengal remaining in India. They were from the Congress, Communist Party of India, and the Hindu Mahasabha.

Mookerjee was the lone Hindu Mahasabha representative in the Assembly. Still, the BJP has all along claimed that had Mookerjee not intervened, present-day West Bengal would have become part of East Pakistan.

In 2023, the Centre notified June 20 as Paschimbanga Divas and the day witnessed official celebrations nationwide, including events at the various Raj Bhavans.

This prompted then Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to accuse the BJP of distorting history and notifying the day “without consultation with the state government”.

As a counter to the Centre’s move, Mamata moved a resolution in the Assembly in 2023 declaring Poila Boisakh as the state’s foundation day, triggering statewide BJP protests.

At Tarakeswar on Saturday, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari accused the previous state government of taking this step to deliberately suppress the history of West Bengal’s formation and Mookerjee’s role.

Modi, in his half-hour speech, praised Mookerjee effusively and accused the Congress of surrendering before forces that had conspired to include the whole of Bengal in East Pakistan.

“When attempts were being made to make the whole of Bengal a part of Pakistan, the Congress had knelt before those conspirators. It was at that very moment that Syama Prasad Mookerjee raised his voice against it,” he said.

“We must repeatedly explain the importance of Paschimbanga Day to the younger generation. They must betold what happened during that period.”

Modi added that Bengal had witnessed violence and bloodshed but remained a part of India.

“The idea that saved West Bengal was the very idea that should have guided the state after Independence. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened. Efforts were made to make people forget Paschimbanga Divas,” he said.

The Congress accused the BJP of weaving a misleading narrative around June 20 because the party and its forebears had no role in the freedom movement.

It organised a protest in front of its state headquarters and published a booklet on the history of the Partition and the BJP’s alleged attempts to distort history.

CPM state secretary Md Salim too castigated Modiand Suvendu for “distorting history”.

“After the RSS-BJP combine failed to project Syama Prasad Mookerjee as the saviour of Kashmir, they are trying to resurrect him through Bengal,” Salim said.

“During Trinamool rule, the Centre had used the office of the governor to impose its divisive agenda on Bengal. But however much they may try, the people of Bengal are aware of the state’s history and sufferings.”

A prominent city-based historian, now silenced on “all matters political” by a state-issued gag order, said the BJP could not “wish away the actual history”.

“What can be achieved with one vote out of 58 votes?” he told The Telegraph, alluding to Mookerjee being the lone Hindu Mahasabha MLA in the Assembly.

“If more than 50 Congress members voted for it (West Bengal staying in India), then the Congress’s position was already that, and it is the Congress that secured West Bengal,” he said. “This is irrefutable, recorded history.”