Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is determined to wrest intellectual and cultural space from Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. The fight over Vivekananda and Rabindra Nath Tagore’s legacy has taken centrestage in the political contest between the two parties.
"We knew TMC will oppose UGC's circular asking the higher-education institutes to broadcast PM Modi's live address on Vivekananda's Chicago address. Therefore, we were prepared to organise the event at multiple locations to make our youth understand Swami Ji's thoughts," Sayantan Basu, BJP Secretary, said.
Most of the streets and localities in North and South Kolkata were plastered with posters of the BJP and Swami Vivekananda. The flags fluttered everywhere. On the other hand, the TMC camp remembered Vivekananda through a few tweets, and with floral tributes at party offices, thereby, making it easier for the BJP to seize the celebrations.
Add to this the party president, Amit Shah's presence in Kolkata and PM Modi's word of appreciation for Bengalis in his speech, left the TMC wondering they could have also arranged for a similar function. The rather subdued celebrations on TMC's part gave enough space to the BJP to have a field day.
Despite Mamata Banerjee's warning to party leaders against talking to media, a leader told News18, "I support government’s stand on ignoring UGC’s circular. But that does not mean that the government will completely ignore one of the great icons like Swami Vivekananda.”
The leader opined that the state government could have observed the occasion even without telecasting PM's speech, and kept the sentiments of Bengalis in mind. "Now, you can see that Amit Shah and PM Modi stole the show. The party should think of every move very minutely before taking a stand on any issue."
Despite a ban on the telecast of PM Modi's speech, he managed to impress Bengalis when he said: "We salute Bengalis’ contribution to the world. People knew no other salutation other than 'ladies and gentlemen'. For the first time, Vivekananda introduced 'brothers and sisters.”
Eminent author and poet Sitanath Goswami said, “Today, his speech was liked by many of us. I don’t see any harm in telecasting PM Modi's speech in colleges and universities. Today’s generation knows little about Swami Ji, and this was a platform for them to know him through PM’s speech. Our Prime Minister is not from a different world. He is an elected leader.”
“I think this will send a significant message to the people of Bengal, especially those in the cultural and intellectual realm. The state government should take some decisions carefully, considering the interest of a large section of the society,” he added.
However, well-known Indologist Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri said, “It is wrong to believe that intellectual or the cultural community in Bengal will be very impressed with BJP’s event on Swami Ji. People like Vivekananda and Rabindra Nath Tagore are there in our blood and thought. We don’t need a special day to hijack them to claim that belong to us.”
He said, “We never thought that after Ramayana and Mahabharata, now we have to see the politicization of Vivekananda and Rabindra Nath Tagore. There is no doubt that BJP is politicising the issue and I condemn this.”
Left Front legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty slammed both the BJP and TMC for politicising the issue. “Why only BJP, TMC also indulges in such politics in the name of Vivekananda and Tagore. People in Bengal will not like such politics over such eminent personalities. They should be sensible to keep these people away from politics.”
TMC General Secretary Partha Chatterjee had accused the Centre of trying to saffronise the education system by asking the higher-education institutes to make arrangements for students to watch the speech of PM Modi on the occasion of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s centenary celebration.
“This is nothing but an attempt to saffronise the education system in the country. I have never seen such a Tughlaqi decision ever. It is unfortunate that the Centre is putting Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Swami Vivekananda on the same platform," he said.
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