Kolkata, June 26 (IANS) On the occasion of the 189th birth anniversary of Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the writer of India’s National Song, ‘Vande Mataram’, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday announced the setting up of ‘Vande Mataram Museum’ in the state.

The Chief Minister participated in a programme to celebrate the birth anniversary of Rishi Bankim Chandra at the latter’s ancestral residence at College Street in North Kolkata. After garlanding the picture of the writer of the Indian national song, he announced the proposed Vande Mataram Museum.

“This is for the first time; any event is being organised by the state information and cultural affairs department to celebrate the birth anniversary of Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. The previous regime only practised appeasement politics. But now a national government is here in West Bengal. So, such nationalist activities will now take place regularly. Anyway, it is better not to discuss thieves, robbers, lechers, and cheats in the house carrying the memories of Rish Bankim Chandra. There are other places for that,” the Chief Minister said while speaking to the media persons at the end of the programme.

Speaking on the proposed Vande Mataram Museum, the Chief Minister said that fund allocations for the same have already been announced in the state budget for the financial year 2026-27, which was tabled on the floor of the Assembly by the State Finance Minister, Swapan Dasgupta, on June 22.

“The proposed museum will be of national standards,” CM Adhikari said.

Speaking on the occasion, he also recollected how the previous ruler in the state, Trinamool Congress, created obstacles for him, as the then Leader of Opposition, on the same day last year, while trying to reach Rishi Bankim Chandra’s house at College Street to pay floral tributes.

“They had deliberately dug up the approach-way to the residence of Rishi Bankim Chandra on the same day last year. However, the people of West Bengal had given them a fitting reply in the recently concluded state Assembly polls,” CM Adhikari said.

–IANS

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