Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday for referring to Bengal’s spiritual icon Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, or Thakur Ramakrishnadeb, as “Swami” on his birth anniversary.
In a post on X, the PM wrote, “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.”
Reacting to his post, 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’!”
“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. 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,” Banerjee added.
“I urge the Prime Minister kindly not to discover new prefixes and suffixes for the great Renaissance figures of Bengal who shaped modern India,” wrote the chief minister.
Defending the PM, West Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said, “In the rest of India, big spiritual icons are addressed as Swami Ji.”
The Ramakrishna Mission did not make any statement till noon.
