The Chief Minister's Office of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, 18 June 2026, invoked the ruling party's signature 'heritage and development' theme to mark 12 years of governance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, framing cultural conservation and modern infrastructure as twin pillars of a new India. The post, shared from the official @CMMadhyaPradesh handle, stated in Hindi: 'Virasat bhi, Vikas bhi' ('Heritage too, Development too'), adding that under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, India is 'writing a new chapter of modern development while preserving its cultural heritage.' It described the confluence of faith, culture and progress as the 'powerful identity of the new India.'

Context

The post was tagged to Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, the Prime Minister's Office, the state's religious trusts body, and the Ministry of Culture, Madhya Pradesh. The hashtag #12YearsOfVikasBhiVirasatBhi situates the message within a broader national commemoration of the BJP-led central government's 12th year in office, which began in May 2014. Madhya Pradesh is home to several significant Hindu pilgrimage sites and UNESCO-listed monuments, including Khajuraho, Sanchi, and the Mahakaleshwar temple corridor in Ujjain. The state government has consistently positioned these sites as anchors for both faith-based tourism and broader regional development.

Policy Backdrop

The 'Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi' formulation has been central to Madhya Pradesh BJP messaging since at least 2018, when it was used to describe simultaneous infrastructure growth and temple or heritage conservation. The phrase has since been adopted as a national-level BJP governance narrative. At the central level, the PRASHAD scheme — launched in 2014-15 by the Ministry of Tourism — provides dedicated funding for pilgrimage infrastructure and heritage-site amenities in states including Madhya Pradesh. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, completed between 2019 and 2021, became a widely cited model for combining temple redevelopment with urban infrastructure, a template that state governments have drawn on for their own projects. Since 2014, successive BJP-led governments at the centre and in states have framed heritage conservation as integral to economic development rather than a separate domain, embedding it in tourism circuits, monument lighting projects, and digital promotion drives.

Stakeholders and Impact

The messaging directly addresses pilgrims, tourists, and heritage-site managers across Madhya Pradesh, a state whose tourism economy is substantially linked to religious and historical destinations. The state's tourism department and religious trusts bodies — both tagged in the post — are the primary institutional actors responsible for translating this political narrative into on-ground projects. For the broader public, the framing signals that the state government intends to continue aligning infrastructure spending with cultural and religious priorities, a combination that has historically drawn both support from faith communities and scrutiny from heritage conservationists who question the pace and scale of redevelopment near protected monuments.

What's Next

The anniversary messaging is likely to be followed by state budget allocations or tender announcements for temple corridor and heritage tourism projects in the coming fiscal cycle. With national elections due in 2029, the 'Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi' theme is expected to remain a central plank of BJP governance communication at both the state and central levels. Observers will watch whether the Madhya Pradesh government announces concrete new projects — or expands existing ones such as the Mahakaleshwar Corridor — to give substantive weight to the anniversary declaration.