Mamata Banerjee slams PM Modi over ‘cultural insensitivity’ remark on Ramakrishna birth anniversary

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his message on the birth anniversary of 19th-century spiritual leader Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, accusing him of displaying “cultural insensitivity” towards Bengal’s revered figures.

Taking to X, 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 the Prime Minister’s message in Hindi, where he referred to Ramakrishna as “Swami”, and said the saint was traditionally revered as “Thakur”.

“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,” 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,” Banerjee added.

The Prime Minister’s message on X in Hindi, as translated by the Bharatiya Janata Party, 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 had erupted after PM Modi, during a debate in the Lok Sabha marking 150 years of “Vande Mataram”, referred to its composer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as “Bankim da”. In Bengali, “da” or “dada” means elder brother.

While Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy corrected the Prime Minister during his speech, leaders and MPs of the All India Trinamool Congress later protested in the Lok Sabha and demanded an apology.​