Kolkata, Jul 20 (PTI) West Bengal’s BJP government on Monday announced that Bengali will be mandatory for all official communications from September 1, a move that will reshape the state’s administrative language policy and blunt the opposition TMC’s politial plank — portraying the saffron party as culturally alien to the state.
Making the announcement in the Assembly, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari read out a letter written in Bengali by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his recent visit to Kolkata, in which the latter urged the state government to ensure the extensive use of Bengali across every layer of administration.
From file notings and departmental correspondence to government notifications, citizen services and official communication with the Centre, Bengali will now occupy the primary position in governance, Adhikari said.
“From September 1, the use of the Bengali language will be mandatory at every level of the state government,” the chief minister said.
“We will use Bengali in all correspondence with the Centre and other states. Communications with the Union government will be in Bengali along with Rajbhasha Hindi,” he added.
The move comes barely two-and-a-half months after the BJP ended the TMC’s 15-year rule in West Bengal and appears aimed at reclaiming political ground that the opposition had occupied for years through the language-and-identity discourse.
For nearly a decade, particularly during the 2021 Assembly election and the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, the TMC sought to portray the BJP as a party of “outsiders”, repeatedly projecting leaders from Gujarat and north India as culturally disconnected from Bengal.
Protecting Bengali language, culture and identity became central to the party’s political messaging, alongside allegations that the BJP sought to impose Hindi and homogenise India’s linguistic diversity.
Monday’s announcement indicates that the BJP, now in power in Bengal, is attempting to recast that perception by demonstrating that the promotion of Bengali can coexist with its broader political and ideological framework.
Significantly, the initiative originated from Shah himself, often projected by the TMC as the principal face of the BJP’s alleged “outsider” politics in the state.
In the letter, Shah referred to Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s advocacy for the preservation and development of Indian languages and urged the state government to ensure Bengali is used in land records, file management, departmental communications, government notifications, public services, digital administration, advertisements and others.
He also suggested that instead of English, Bengali and Hindi could be used in official communication with the Centre, citing the Union home ministry’s experience of functioning extensively in Hindi.
“I believe that on the 125th birth anniversary (July 6 this year) of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, your government will take effective steps for the extensive use and development of Indian languages,” Shah wrote.
Adhikari said the state government had accepted the suggestions and would accord Bengali priority in all official work.
The announcement follows Shah’s remarks at the inauguration of the country’s first immersive language museum in Kolkata on Sunday, where he underlined the inseparable link between language and civilisation and called upon Indians to preserve the country’s multilingual ethos by learning at least one Indian language in addition to their mother tongue.
The political messaging was not lost on observers. Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty said, “So far, the TMC projected itself as the custodian of Bengali identity. The BJP now wants to demonstrate that it too can champion the Bengali language and culture. Politically, it seeks to neutralise an issue that had consistently yielded political dividends for the TMC.” Former Rabindra Bharati University vice-chancellor and noted linguist Pabitra Sarkar welcomed the decision, describing it as a positive step while suggesting that Nepali in the Darjeeling hills and Santhali in Jangalmahal should also receive equal administrative importance.
“This is something that had long been promised but never fully implemented. It is good that it is finally happening,” he said.
Within the TMC, however, the response reflected the party’s continuing internal divisions.
Senior leader and MLA Kunal Ghosh of the Mamata Banerjee camp dismissed the announcement as largely symbolic, claiming Bengali was already widely used in government functioning.
“You cannot become pro-Bengali merely by issuing a notification. Reality is different,” he said, questioning how judges transferred from outside the state would function entirely in Bengali.
In contrast, TMC leader Santanu Sen from the rebel camp led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee welcomed the decision and publicly thanked Shah and Adhikari. “As a Bengali, I feel proud,” he said.
Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose said efforts to increase the use of Bengali in the legislature had already begun, and the government’s decision would further strengthen the language’s place in public administration.
Beyond Bengal, political observers see the decision as carrying a broader national message.
The BJP has often faced resistance in several non-Hindi-speaking states over allegations that it promotes Hindi at the cost of regional languages.
By placing Bengali at the centre of governance in a state where linguistic identity has long shaped electoral politics, the party appears to be signalling that regional languages can remain integral to governance under a BJP administration.
Whether the policy results in a complete shift in the state’s administrative functioning remains to be seen. Politically, however, the announcement marks one of the BJP government’s earliest attempts to appropriate an emotive issue that had long defined the TMC’s electoral vocabulary and recast itself as an equally credible champion of Bengal’s language, culture and identity. PTI AMR SMY NSD PNT NN
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