Organizations celebrate Swami Vivekananda’s 161st birth anniversary

KOLKATA: Morning rallies by various social and political organisations, garlanding of photos of Bengal’s greatest spiritual icon, and visits by thousands to the monk’s ancestral home here marked the 161st birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda here on Friday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid tributes to Swamiji through a pictorial on ‘X’.

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee visited Swamiji’s ancestral place to pay homage to Swamiji and seek the blessings of senior monks of Ramakrishna Mission (RKM).

Giving a political twist, senior TMC minister Shashi Panja said, “Today is Swamiji’s birth anniversary, which is also celebrated as Youth Day. Swamiji, in his own words, has said you can plant seeds of love, fear, hate, jealousy, revenge, but it depends what fruit you want to harvest. It is unfortunate that in West Bengal, we are seeing opponent political leaders harvesting fruits of hate, jealousy, and revenge,” she said in an oblique reference to to the raids by the Enforcement Directorate at the residences of three heavyweight TMC leaders during the day.

Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari accused the state government of “cancelling” the Student Youth Festival, which used to be held to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swamiji.

“It used to be a platform for young talents to showcase their skills in various artistic and intellectual domains. This sudden and unexpected cancellation is disappointing to both the participants and the organisers…The government has misplaced priorities,” said the leader of the opposition.

During the day, thousands of devotees visited Belur Math, the global headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission, to pay homage and seek the blessings of Swami Vivekananda. Hundreds also visited his ancestral home near Hedua Park.