Referring to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as ‘swami’ reflects insensitivity, Mamata reacts to PM’s social media post

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, February 19, 2026, took strong exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s post referring to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as “Swami”. In a post on social media platform X, the Prime Minister paid tribute to the spiritual master on his birth anniversary and addressed him as “Swami Ramakrishna”.

“Shocked again! Our Prime Minister is once again aggressively displaying his cultural insensitivity towards great personalities of Bengal. Today is the janmatithi of Yugavatara [God’s incarnation in our age] Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva. While trying to salute the great saint on this occasion, our Prime Minister added an unprecedented and inappropriate prefix to the name of the great saint: “Swami”!

The prefix Swami is often used to refer to Swami Vivekanandaa and other monastic disciples of Ramakrishna, as well as monks of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

West Bengal Chief Minister underlined this point and explained in his post: “While his ascetic disciples formed the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission after the death of their Master and these monks were later called ‘Swami’ according to Indian customs, Master Acharya himself continued to be called Thakur”.

“The prefix ‘Swami’ was 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,” Ms. Banerjee said, urging the Prime Minister to introduce “new prefixes and suffixes for the great Renaissance figures of Bengal who shaped the modern He encouraged me not to explore. India”.

This development comes weeks after the Trinamool Congress leadership criticized Chief Minister Vande Mataram for referring to author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as “Bankim da”.

Participating in a 150-year-old debate in the Lok Sabha Vande MataramThe Prime Minister had mentioned Bankim da, the author of the National Song, on September 11. Following the intervention of Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy, Mr Modi went ‘Bankim Babu’ but the Trinamool Congress launched a scathing attack. Trinamool Congress has often called the BJP the party of “outsiders” and this development assumes significance ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Ms. Banerjee had demanded an apology from the Prime Minister over the issue. Bamkim Chandra Chattopadhyay is considered one of the greatest writers and icons of the state and is often referred to as “Rishi Bankim”.

With Assembly elections set to take place in the next few months, the Trinamool Congress is leaving no stone unturned to highlight any “tidbit” of the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership when it comes to social and religious icons of the State.

BJP leader and party’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya, in a post on