Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, 18 June 2026, took to X to mark twelve years of the Narendra Modi government's cultural and heritage agenda, describing India's heritage as being 'restored, celebrated and transformed into a force for pride and progress' under the Prime Minister's leadership.

Context

The post, tagged #12YearsOfVikasBhiVirasatBhi — roughly translating to '12 years of both development and heritage' — marks the completion of twelve years since the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance came to power in May 2014. The hashtag itself encapsulates a governing philosophy the party has consistently projected: that physical infrastructure and cultural identity are not competing priorities but complementary ones.

Sitharaman, as a senior member of the Union Cabinet and one of the government's most prominent faces on economic policy, used the occasion to frame heritage preservation as an element of national progress — not merely a cultural exercise.

Policy Backdrop

Since 2014, the central government has pursued a layered approach to heritage. The Swadesh Darshan scheme, launched in 2014-15 under the Ministry of Tourism, developed thematic tourist circuits that include heritage and pilgrimage sites, linking conservation directly to economic activity in local communities.

Simultaneously, the PRASAD scheme — Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive — provided integrated infrastructure development at major pilgrimage destinations across the country. The Archaeological Survey of India has been active in multiple restoration projects over this period, working on temples, ghats, and protected monuments. A flagship example of this approach was the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi, inaugurated in 2019, which redeveloped the precinct around one of India's most significant religious sites and became a template for subsequent projects.

The broader pattern across twelve years has been to combine physical restoration with new tourism infrastructure, positioning cultural pride as an active driver of development rather than a passive inheritance.

Stakeholders and Impact

The beneficiaries of this policy direction span a wide range: the tourism industry has seen increased footfall at heritage circuits; pilgrimage site communities have received upgraded amenities and connectivity; and heritage conservation groups have engaged — sometimes in tension, sometimes in collaboration — with the scale and pace of redevelopment.

For the BJP as a political organisation, the 'Vikas bhi, Virasat bhi' framing has served as a counter to the traditional criticism that development and cultural identity pull in opposite directions. Senior ministers marking the twelve-year milestone publicly reinforces that this remains a core messaging pillar heading into the next electoral cycle.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the Union Budget 2026-27 and whether allocations for the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism reflect a step-up in ambition on this front. Any new monument redevelopment or heritage corridor projects announced in the remainder of 2026 will be read as a continuation of the twelve-year arc that Sitharaman and her colleagues are now publicly celebrating.