DNA Decodes: The 98-year-old man PM Modi bowed to at Bengal's historic swearing-in

In today’s DNA episode, Zee News Managing Editor Rahul Sinha decodes why PM Modi bowed to 98-year-old BJP veteran Makhanlal Sarkar at Bengal’s historic swearing-in ceremony.

Visual of Zee News Managing Editor Rahul Sinha and PM Narendra Modi takes blessings from the BJP veteran worker Makhanlal Sarkar. (Photo source: Screengrab from Zee News video, ANI)

India has seen political victories celebrated with garlands and speeches. But on May 9, at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked past ministers, chief ministers, and VIPs. He stopped in front of a 98-year-old man. He touched his feet. That man was Makhanlal Sarkar. His story is older than BJP itself. And on Bengal's biggest political day, he became its most important person.

#DNAमित्रों | #DNA #DNAWithRahulSinha #SuvendhuAdhikari #PMModi #BengalCM #BJP #Oath@RahulSinhaTV pic.twitter.com/u7CQZK3fGo — Zee News (@ZeeNews) May 9, 2026

Add Zee News as a Preferred Source

The man who stood with Shyama Prasad Mookerjee 

Makhanlal Sarkar's journey began in 1952. Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee launched his historic agitation that year to hoist the tricolour in Kashmir. The movement demanded that Indians should not need a permit to enter Indian territory. Sarkar stood beside Mookerjee in that fight. He was arrested. He spent time in prison. He was a young man then. He had no rank, no title, and no reward waiting for him.

When BJP was formally founded in 1980, the party looked at Bengal. It was a difficult posting. Left Front had a grip on the state that felt permanent. Being a BJP worker in Bengal then was not a political choice. It was a social risk. Sarkar was given the responsibility to build the party in Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, and Darjeeling. In less than one year, he enrolled nearly 10,000 new members into the party.

Through the 1980s, the work grew harder. Sarkar distributed party pamphlets in secret. He was beaten by police. Political goons attacked his small home more than once. He kept going. He never filed papers for an election. He never asked for a post. He simply kept the organisation alive in a state where flying the BJP flag could get you killed.

The blood behind the victory

That was not an exaggeration. A memorial at the swearing-in ceremony listed 213 BJP workers murdered in political violence in West Bengal. Their names were carved in stone at the same ground where the oath was taken. Their families were invited to sit in the audience. PM Modi met some of them personally.

Three stories stood out. Debashish Mandal from Howrah was a booth worker beaten to death for opposing booth capturing during panchayat elections. Soumitra Ghoshal of BJP Yuva Morcha was found hanging from a tree outside his village, his body bearing marks of assault. RSS volunteer Anand Paul was killed returning from a branch in Malda, targeted for his organisational work. Their families are still waiting for justice. The new government's arrival is being read as a signal that the wait may finally be ending.

The memorial, the families in the audience, and PM Modi's personal meetings with the bereaved. All of it was deliberate. BJP was telling Bengal that the path to this government was paved by people whose names most voters never knew. Makhanlal Sarkar represented every one of them.

Three messages from one bow

PM Modi's gesture on stage carried a meaning that no speech could produce. He walked past every powerful person in that gathering and stopped in front of a 98-year-old party worker who had never once contested an election. He touched his feet, embraced him, and made him the first person acknowledged at Bengal's most-watched political event in decades.

The Prime Minister's act delivered three clear messages for every BJP worker watching. First, the party does not forget those who gave their years without asking for anything in return. Second, the foundation of any government is the booth worker and the panna pramukh who fight on the ground. Third, the leadership in Delhi sees the struggle. It does not just observe it. It honours it publicly.

Sarkar never became a minister. He never became a party president. He never gave a press conference. For decades, he existed in the quiet spaces between rallies and meetings, stitching the organisation together piece by piece. When BJP had zero seats in Bengal, he was there. When BJP climbed from zero representation to 207 seats across three decades, Sarkar had done his part long before the cameras arrived.

In a country where seniority is respected but rarely celebrated with honesty, the image of the Prime Minister and the party worker carried something rare. It said that those who plant the seeds rarely live to eat the fruit. But on this day, in this city, one man lived long enough to see the garden bloom.

And the country's most powerful leader made sure he was the first person in the room to say thank you. Makhanlal Sarkar smiled. That was enough.