On Monday, ruling party of West Bengal, TMC stated that BJP’s attempts to evoke Bengal’s icons, such as Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, for political gains is “ironical”, as the ideals of these luminaries do not match with the saffron party’s vision and objectives.

Speaking to reporters here, on the eve of Swami Vivekananda’s birthday, senior TMC leader and a state minister, Bratya Basu recalled that Sri Ramakrishna had once said “jato mat, tato path”, which means multiple views lead to multiple avenues ‑ in short, pluralism – “something that the saffron camp does not subscribe to”.

“BJP talking about them is ironical as the party does not believe in Ramakrishna’s way of thinking. Even Swami Vivekananda had said ‘those who love humanity serve the God’,” Basu.

The minister maintained that TMC supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee has paid tribute to these eminent personalities by restoring their residences, and making arrangements to honour them on several occasions.

The CM, however, was thwarted from delivering speeches at Oxford Union and Chicago, “for reasons which are not known to us”, he said.

The Oxford Union had in December 2020 postponed Banerjee’s virtual address at the eleventh hour, citing unforeseen circumstances.

The TMC leadership, infuriated over the development, had claimed that “political pressure” could have forced the organizers to to take such a call.

In 2018, Mamata’s scheduled programme at Chicago on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary had also been cancelled.