Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Sunday, June 14, 2026, credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's twelve years in office with decisively reversing what he described as a long-running, deliberate erosion of pride in Indian identity, calling the restoration both unprecedented in scale and permanent in character.

Posting on X under the hashtag #12YearsOfSeva, Shekhawat wrote in Hindi: 'पहले भारतीयता पर गर्व के भाव को सुनियोजित तरीके से खंडित किया गया था' ('Earlier, the sense of pride in Indianness was systematically fragmented'), adding that under Modi's 'self-respecting vision' (स्वाभिमानी सोच), it is now being 'empowered in an unprecedented and permanent manner.'

Context

The post marks the BJP's ongoing celebration of twelve years since Narendra Modi assumed office as Prime Minister in May 2014. The #12YearsOfSeva campaign has seen ministers and party functionaries across portfolios highlighting what they frame as a transformative shift in governance philosophy. Shekhawat's contribution focuses squarely on the cultural dimension — the idea that Indian civilisational identity had been marginalised before 2014 and is now being actively restored.

As the minister overseeing both the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism, Shekhawat is a key voice in articulating the government's heritage agenda. His post tags both @PMOIndia and @MinOfCultureGoI, signalling institutional alignment rather than a purely personal statement.

Policy Backdrop

Since 2014, the Union government has rolled out a series of programmes aimed at embedding Indian cultural identity into public life and policy. The Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat initiative was designed to foster cultural exchange and linkages across states, while the National Education Policy 2020 introduced provisions for integrating Indian knowledge systems and classical heritage into school and university curricula.

The Ministry of Culture has also overseen significant investments in the restoration of heritage sites, the promotion of classical languages, and the digitisation of archival material. These efforts form the policy backbone that Shekhawat's statement implicitly references when he speaks of 'unprecedented empowerment' of Indian identity.

Stakeholders and Impact

The message is directed at a broad public audience, but its resonance is felt most immediately within cultural institutions, heritage bodies, and the BJP's core constituency that views civilisational pride as a central political value. Educators, museum administrators, and practitioners of classical arts stand to be directly affected by the policy direction the minister is championing.

Critics of this framing have argued that attributing a 'systematic fragmentation' of Indian identity to earlier governments is a partisan reading of history rather than a neutral policy assessment — a distinction the research underpinning this report flags as important. Shekhawat's post reflects the BJP's established political narrative; it does not constitute an official government finding.

What's Next

Observers of cultural policy will watch the Union Budget for the next fiscal cycle and any announcements in the upcoming parliamentary session for concrete allocations to heritage development, classical language promotion, and tourism infrastructure. The #12YearsOfSeva campaign is also expected to continue generating policy-linked messaging from ministers across portfolios in the weeks ahead.

Shekhawat's statement sets a tone: the government intends to keep cultural self-assertion at the centre of its public communication as it consolidates its third consecutive term in office.