West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his message on the birth anniversary of the19th-century spiritual leader Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Deva.
Taking to X handle, Mamata Banerjee wrote, ‘Shocked again! Yet again, our Prime Minister aggressively displays his cultural insensitivity to great figures of Bengal. Today is the janmatithi of Yugavatara (God’s incarnation in our age) Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva. While trying to hail the great saint on this occasion, our PM added an unprecedented and improper prefix to the great saint’s name, “Swami”!’
The West Bengal chief minister highlighted PM Modi’s message in Hindi, where he referred to Ramkrishna as Swami.
“As is well known, Sri Ramakrishna was widely revered as Thakur (literally, God). While his ascetic disciples constituted the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission after their Master’s demise, and those monks were then called “Swami” as per Indian traditions, the Master, the Acharya, himself continued to be referred to as Thakur,” Mamata Banerjee wrote.
“The prefix “Swami” was meant for his disciples in the Ramakrishna Order; but the holy trinity of the Order remained Thakur–Ma–Swamiji. Thakur is Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva, Ma is Ma Sarada, and Swamiji is Swami Vivekananda,” she said.
“I urge the Prime Minister kindly not to discover new prefixes and suffixes for the great Renaissance figures of Bengal who shaped modern India,” Mamata Banerjee added in the post.
The Prime Minister’s message on the X handle in Hindi, as translated by the BJP, said, “On the birth anniversary of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, I offer my respectful tributes. The way he established spirituality and devotion as a life force will continue to uplift humanity in every era. His noble thoughts and teachings will forever remain a source of inspiration.”
Earlier, a controversy erupted after PM Modi, during the debate on 150 years of Vande Mataram in Lok Sabha, began his speech by referring to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the composer of the song, as ‘Bankim Da’. In Bengali, dada means elder brother.
While Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Sougata Roy corrected PM Modi during his speech, TMC leaders and MPs later protested against his remarks in Lok Sabha. The TMC also demanded an apology from the Prime Minister.