West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday skipped Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) 150 years celebrations, ostensibly to avoid sharing dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hours after he launched a scathing attack on the critics of the CAA from Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math.
Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya had personally invited Mamata to attend the event of the 150th anniversary of KoPT.
The Chief Minister on Saturday had shared the dais with Modi at a Government function.
The Bengal Opposition parties, including Trinamool Congress, Left and the Congress, slammed Modi for dragging a “pious and pure religious order” like Ramakrishna Mission into politics by using its holy, apolitical precincts to make political statements.
CPI (M) politburo Member Md Salim wondered how instead of paying tributes to Swami Vivekananda the PM could use Belur Math for political purposes.
“Rama Krishna Mission speaks about religious tolerance and they prefer seclusion from politics. But here is a Prime Minister who has not only broken that tradition but also used its platform to mislead the people of the country.”
Congress leader of Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury said “Swami Vivekananda believed in identifying God with humanity. He said God resides in every human being. But here the Prime Minister played a very dirty game by dragging Belur Math in his political games. This is unacceptable. This will hit the Bengali sentiment too. We are not like what Modi ji and his people think we are.”
“It is unprecedented that Belur Math has been used by a PM for the first time in the history of the country for political purposes. He made political statements from the podium of purely religious function which will not be appreciated by the followers of the order.
“Instead of reminding Swami Vivekananda’s greatness, his good messages, his preaching on religious unity, his advice to see God in every human being the Prime Minister used his birth anniversary programme as a playground for politics. This is abominable,” Chatterjee said.
Meanwhile, the overnight protest that erupted soon after the Prime Minister landed in Kolkata on Saturday afternoon continued till late in Sunday evening with people, mostly students from Congress and the Left parties taking hold of the Kolkata streets blockading its roads and protesting against the CAA and Modi.