Amit Shah lays foundation stone of world’s largest curd production plant

Shah said the political change in the state was unlike any witnessed in the country since Independence, asserting that the new BJP government led by Adhikari has revived the quest for “Sonar Bangla” after decades of “misrule” of the Left and the TMC.

“We used to write to the then chief minister [Mamata Banerjee] to provide two plots of 15 acres each so that eastern India’s dairy production could be developed from Bengal. At that time, I was told Gujarat would not be allowed to enter the state… But this [project] is not for Gujarat; it is for the livestock farmers of West Bengal,” he said.

Praising the present BJP government, he said the project became possible because of the political change in the state. “On my way here, I asked CM Adhikari for land, and he immediately agreed to provide it free of cost to the Amul Federation,” he said.

Shah said he had come to Bengal on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sweeten the mouths of the people with ‘mishti doi’ after the BJP’s victory in the recent Assembly elections.

Shah said the state, which was once “a beacon of light” for the entire country in education, culture, spirituality, the freedom movement and nationalism, suffered decades of “political decline”.

“Bengal remained under a Communist government influenced by foreign ideology for three decades. After breaking free from that, it fell into the clutches of the TMC… Before our eyes, the dream of ‘Sonar Bangla’ envisioned by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was destroyed,” he said.

He also laid the foundation stones of 14 storage warehouses with an estimated cost of Rs 6 crore, with a total storage capacity of 1,400 metric tonnes across nine districts.

Earlier in the day, Shah held a high-level review meeting regarding the law-and-order situation in the state. The meeting was attended by CM Adhikari and the state’s police and administration brass.

According to sources, Shah asked all border police stations of West Bengal Police to work in coordination with the BSF. He emphasised the need to establish an anti-narcotics task force, an anti-terrorist squad and a special investigation agency modelled after the NIA to strengthen West Bengal’s internal security, given its 2,217-km border with Bangladesh, officials told PTI.

Inaugurates ‘Museum of Word’

Later in the day, Shah visited the National Library campus in Alipore where he inaugurated the Museum of Word (Shabdalok), said to be India’s first immersive language museum.

The Shabdalok is designed to showcase the vast diversity of India’s languages, scripts and storytelling traditions.

Developed by the National Library under the aegis of the Union Culture Ministry, Shabdalok celebrates India’s 22 official languages and traces their journey from oral traditions and ancient manuscripts to printed works and modern electronic texts, highlighting the country’s enduring linguistic diversity.

“This is a momentous day for the nation’s culture… I am fully confident that this Museum of Word will address a fundamental need in this process of cultural resurgence and will succeed in its mission.”

“Every youth must learn one Indian language along with the mother tongue. Through this, we can give long life to our languages,” he said.