Kolkata, Jul 6 (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J. P. Nadda on Monday addressed a virtual rally in West Bengal via video conferencing on the birth anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee and took a jibe at the Mamata government.

"Dr Mookerjee fought the Bengal famine in 1943 with everything he had and served the people tirelessly day and night. He was made the President of the Relief Committee then," Nadda said.

He said it used to be told what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. It was only possible because of leaders like Mookerjee, who were born in Bengal.

"Today the issues we are fighting over are various regional aspirations, he always tried to respect that. He was the one who saved Bengal from going to the east Pakistan side. He always opposed the politics of appeasement too," the BJP national president said.

"Today when I see the leaders from Bengal, I feel really sorry. The level of education has taken a nosedive here," he said, adding that the pride of Bengal needs to be restored.

He said the incumbent government had failed to bring back the lost glory of the state. He also took a dig at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue of cooperative federalism.

"On the one hand, we have our leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who believes in cooperative federalism. But here the CM is trying to suppress the real figures of the corona cases," he said.

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee hit out at the BJP president, saying the state never allowed politics to take control of education in Bengal.

"I am surprised at his stray statement. They (BJP) want to change the culture of Bengal. They will not be able to succeed. The Trinamool Congress-led state government has done a lot in the past 10 years to spread education across the state." Chatterjee said that Nadda's statement was politically motivated.