West Bengal Celebrates: Poila Baisakh Declared Official State Day

The West Bengal  legislative assembly on 7 September 2023  passed a resolution to designate Poila Baisakh as the State Day.  The Poila Baisakh is the first day of the Bengali calendar and it is observed on 15 April every year by the Bengali community in India.

The resolution also proposed to make Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s 'Banglar Mati, Banglar Jol' (Bengal’s soil, Bengal’s water) as the state song.

The resolution was passed by the West Bengal legislative assembly with 167 members voting in favour of the resolution . However  the sixty-two MLAs of the BJP voted against the resolution. The BJP member wants June 20 to be observed  as Bengal’s foundation Day. The total strength of the West Bengal Assembly is 294.

Controversy behind the Bengal Day 

Last year the central government announced that 20 June will be observed as Bengal foundation day . On 20 June 1947  the members of the non muslim members of the Bengal legislative assembly  voted in favour of partition of Bengal and joining the Indian Constituent Assembly . This led to the creation of the present day of West Bengal . 

The chief minister of West Bengal Mamata  Banerjee ,who is a staunch opponent of the Narendra Modi led BJP government at the center argues that 20 June is synonymous with violence and bloodshed and it cannot be the Bangala Day.

The resolution is not a bill and thus needs no assent of the  state governor to become a law . In 2018 the West Bengal assembly passed a resolution to rename the state as Bangla instead of West Bengal . However unless the parliament passes an enabling law, the name of a state cannot be changed . The parliament has yet to pass such a law.

Governor of West Bengal : CV Ananda Bose