Mamata Banerjee Calls All-Party Meet To Discuss 'Foundation Day' Row

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has called for an all-party meeting on August 29 on the issue of observance of West Bengal Foundation Day. Earlier, the observance on June 20 as Statehood Day had drawn strong condemnation from the West Bengal Government, with Ms Banerjee writing a letter to the Governor. The Bengal government is opposed to the move of observing June 20 as Statehood Day.

Sources said the Chief Minister has written to representatives of parties explaining the reason for the decision to oppose the move, which the state government said has been done without any consultation with them.

"The reason for our objection and protest is that suddenly why is this particular day being chosen and being observed as Foundation Day and the reasons for this are not clear. The Union government has not held any discussions with us on this issue. The Governor has not disclosed anything to us. In Bengal, there has been no practice of observing any such Foundation Day. We've not read or heard anywhere that West Bengal was created on June 20. This recent decision of the Union government is disappointing and agitating," the Chief Minister told leaders of political parties.

"With respect to this issue, on August 29, at 4.30 in the afternoon at Nabanna Sabhaghar, a meeting to discuss this issue has been organised. The issue will be discussed exhaustively, and we will endeavour to arrive at an appropriate decision. We will remain grateful if you or a representative of your political party attend the meeting and share your views," Ms Banerjee said in the letter to leaders of political parties.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had written to the Governor to not hold any celebration at the Raj Bhavan for Foundation Day or Statehood Day.

Raj Bhavans have been advised to hold programmes to mark Statehood Day in what is a new initiative as part of the Union government's thrust on celebrating the country's cultural diversity and traditions.

Ms Banerjee had earlier lashed out at the Governor's decision to mark the state's Foundation Day. Scoffing at the declaration of June 20 as the "Foundation Day" of Bengal, she pointed out that the state was really born as a painful fallout of the Partition - an occasion that is seared into the memory of its people.

"The state was not founded on any particular day, least of all on any 20th of June... The pain and trauma of Partition was such that people in the state have never commemorated any day as Foundation Day since India's independence," she wrote in a letter to Governor CV Ananda Bose.

Declaring that she was "stunned and shocked" by the "unilateral decision", she had written to the Governor saying the process of carving out Bengal out of the undivided state of Bengal in 1947 "involved uprooting of millions of people across the border and death and displacement of innumerable families".

Governor Bose, however, went ahead and organised the state's Foundation Day programme at Raj Bhavan on June 20.