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Coming down heavily on West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Sukanta Majumdar, state Minister Shashi Panja said that the former has indirectly shown disrespect to Swami Vivekananda.
"Swami Vivekananda once said you will be nearer to heaven if you play football rather than the study of Gita. Today, West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar showed disrespect to Swami Vivekananda's thoughts and his sayings," the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Minister said. While reacting to a statement by a TMC leader on the Lokkho Konthe Gita Path event in Kolkata, Sukanta said that those who are saying that playing football is better than reciting Gita are 'products' of the 'Left'. "He (Sukanta) has said that those who have said about football and Gita in this way are illiterate. So indirectly commenting on a state minister who used Swami Vivekananda's quotes to speak about the association of Gita and football, by criticising the Minister, he indirectly showed disrespect to Swami Vivekananda," Panja explained. The TMC leader alleged that the BJP has been consistently showing disrespect to Bengali icons, whether it is Swami Vivekananda or Rabindranath Tagore. Panja alleged that the BJP also seems "confused" about the literary works of Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar. "Time and again, the BJP has consistently shown disrespect to the icons from Bengal, be it Swami Vivekananda, be it Kobi Guru Rabindranath Tagore, they were not even sure of his place of birth and also Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, when it comes to Barnoporichoy or Sahaj Path they are all very confused," Panja said. Describing the BJP as "outsiders", the TMC leader said that BJP should apologise for their statement. "So time and again, these outsiders, who are outsiders to Bengal culture and harmony and what Dr Sukanta Majumdar said today is again a humiliation of Bengal and utmost disrespect to Swami Vivekananda and he must apologise for this...We are showing our protests against such statements," Panja said. (ANI)
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