CM: TMC stopped Swamiji's home from falling into pvt hands
Times of India | 29 May 2024
KOLKATA: CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday countered BJP's Hindutva narrative in Bengal by telling PM Narendra Modi that the plot of land where he paid homage to Swami Vivekananda - his birthplace - had been bought over by KMC, led by Trinamool Congress, to prevent it from being privately owned.
Banerjee was addressing a rally in the evening at Behala Chowrasta to campaign for south Kolkata candidate Mala Roy.Earlier, she had attended two roadshows - the first at Dum Dum and the other between Entally and Ballygunge Phari, marking her first campaign in Kolkata (South), Trinamool Congress's strongest turf.
The CM also announced that she would, on Wednesday, walk the same stretch that the PM traversed during his roadshow on Tuesday. "I will go there (Vivekananda's birthplace) tomorrow from Shyambazar. We have now made Swamiji's house a permanent address (for his disciples and those who respect him)," she said. "Sister Nivedita's house was also being taken over. We bought it back for those associated with her," she added. She also claimed that she had "rushed thrice" to Darjeeling to save Nivedita's residence, intervening with the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), which had acquired the property for their use, to hand it over to state govt. "Shantanu Maharaj (of the Ramakrishna Mission) was with me at that time," Banerjee said.
Banerjee also challenged the PM's claim that Centre had returned "scam money" to people of Bengal. "Today, he said they will return looted money to the people. But BJP has engaged in looting themselves," she said.
B engal CM Mamata Banerjee pointed out that several places of Hindu worship — among them Fullara Temple, Tarapith, and the Kalighat Temple — had been rebuilt and beautified. “When will the work at Kalighat be completed?” she asked mayor Firhad Hakim, before answering the question herself: “In August, I guess.” “The Jagannath Temple (in Digha, modelled on the Puri temple) has also been completed. But I don’t leave things unfinished.
We could have inaugurated Kalighat before the Bengali New Year (in mid-April), but we didn’t because some work is pending. Thankfully, Modi didn’t say Mamata doesn’t allow Kali Puja,” she added. Sticking with the theme of Hindu worship, Banerjee even dared Modi to name all forms of the goddess Kali. “Do you know how many types of Kali there are?” she asked, twice. Banerjee claimed Modi visited Bengal only when elections drew near.
“He only comes during elections, not during crises. His job is to humiliate Bengal,” she said. “He used to say Mamataji does not allow Durga Puja or Saraswati Puja in Bengal. That same Bengal has now received Unesco recognition. How does it feel now?” she added, referring to the UN body’s inclusion of Bengal’s foremost festival on its ‘List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ in 2021.
Banerjee also asked whether the PM had brought back any black money. “He has turned black money white by putting ‘mafia’ through a washing machine,” she claimed. On a day the PM started his roadshow by garlanding Netaji’s statue, the CM asked him why Centre was not declaring the patriot’s birth anniversary a national holiday. “They are garlanding his portrait during elections to reap political benefits,” she said. It was also Banerjee’s prediction that Modi would cease to be PM in a matter of days.
“Today, the PM — who will become ex-PM in only a few more days — said he was monitoring the cyclone (Remal) from Delhi. Is it befitting that a PM lies so much? I urge him to rethink what he said. NDRF is a central team but state govt bears the expenses. When I was railway minister, we had worked out an agreement to facilitate the same between states and Centre.
How much does he know about the country?” Attacking Modi on Sandeshkhali again, Banerjee said: “‘Modi Babu’ and his team have a plan for everything. BJP humiliated our mothers and sisters to build an election issue out of the Sandeshkhali conspiracy and defame Bengal in front of the whole world. We will not accept this disrespect.”