Mamata criticises Modi for using ‘Swami’ prefix in message on Sri Ramakrishna’s birth anniversary

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using the word ‘Swami’ as a prefix in a social media post on the birth anniversary of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and alleged that the Prime Minister showed “cultural insensitivity towards great personalities” of the state.

Banerjee said that the Prime Minister used the prefix ‘Swami’ in the message, while Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was widely known as ‘Thakur’.

“Shocked again! Our Prime Minister is once again aggressively displaying his cultural insensitivity towards the great personalities of Bengal. Today he is the janmatithi of Yugavatara (the contemporary incarnation of God) Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva.

“Our Prime Minister, while trying to salute the great saint on this occasion, added an unprecedented and inappropriate prefix to the name of the great saint: ‘Swami’!” Banerjee shared a post on X.

Modi on Thursday paid tribute to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa on his birth anniversary and said his noble thoughts will forever remain an inspiration.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was born in 1836.
“We humbly remember Swami Ramakrishna Paramahansa on his birth anniversary. The way he established spirituality and meditation as a vital life force will continue to benefit humanity in all ages. His noble thoughts and messages will forever remain a source of inspiration,” Modi said in a post on Hindi X. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a priest at Kolkata’s Dakshineswar Kali Temple, is known for his teachings on the harmony of religions.

“As is well known, Sri Ramakrishna was widely revered as Thakur (literally, God). While his ascetic disciples formed the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission after the death of their Master, and those monks were later called ‘Swami’ according to Indian traditions, the Master, the Acharya himself, continued to be called Thakur,” Banerjee said. he said.

He said that the prefix “Swami” “is for his disciples in the Ramakrishna Order; but the holy trinity of the Order remains Thakur-Ma-Swamiji. Thakur is Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva, Ma is Ma Sarada, and Swamiji is Swami Vivekananda”.

Banerjee urged the Prime Minister to “kindly not invent new prefixes and suffixes for the great Renaissance figures of Bengal who shaped modern India”.

He had earlier criticized the Prime Minister for referring to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as “Bankim da” during a debate in the Lok Sabha in December last year to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the national song Vande Mataram written by the author.

TMC MP Saugata Roy had objected to the use of the suffix ‘da’ and wanted the Prime Minister to say ‘Bankim babu’ instead.

Modi immediately agreed and said: “I will call my bank ‘babu’. Thank you, I respect your feelings.”