KOLKATA: Three months after her visit to Chicago to attend the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s historic speech at Parliament of World’s Religions was cancelled by the Vivekananda Vedanta Society citing “unforeseen difficulties”, Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday blamed an “unholy conspiracy” for the move.
Speaking at the Ramakrishna Mission headquarters at Belur Math in Howrah district on the anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago speech, Mamata said: “I know that Ramakrishna Mission was threatened to cancel my visit to Chicago. I don’t blame Ramakrishna Mission, who cannot say it on the face, but I can. Some people think that they have become very powerful by exerting pressure. These tactics won’t stop me.”
“I wanted to visit Chicago but it was cancelled due to an unholy conspiracy as some people did not want me to visit there. I was very hurt by the incident. We will learn Hinduism from Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and not any import-export version,” she added.
The TMC supremo also urged Ramakrishna Mission to begin a campaign to take on hardline Hindutva. “You have to spread the tolerant strain of Hinduism to defeat the extremists who are trying to take over everything. They have already taken over Swamiji’s Kanyakumari, next they may take over Belur Math as well. Hinduism is the mother of all religions and has taught the world tolerance and acceptance. We don’t need to learn Hinduism from anyone else,” she added.