IN DEFENCE OF THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION ... 8
Now let us make an analysis of Sri Rantidev Sengupta's original post, dated 12 September, 2018, which has created such a furore on facebook and other social media.
TEXT OF ORIGINAL POST (FIRST PERSON BENGALI) OF RANTIDEV SENGUPTA RENDERED INTO ENGLISH IN FIRST PERSON BY SUGATA BOSE (Sugata Bose). THE THIRD INSTALMENT FOLLOWS :
Yesterday, from the podium of the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math, the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee delivered a political speech from start to finish. I do not blame her. A politician of her sort of mediocre intelligence cannot be faulted for not having discretion or propriety of any consequence. Over and above this she said that Kanyakumari has been seized from the control of the Ramakrishna Mission. After this even the Belur Math will be seized from them. My question is as to what the Brahmajnani monks of the Mission who lit up the podium with their presence were then doing. The Chief Minister may not have known but surely these Brahmajnanis knew that it was Eknath Ranade's endeavour that helped build the Vivekananda Memorial having rescued the Vivekananda Rock from the clutches of the Christian missionaries. Ought not Swami Suvirananda to contradict this downright false statement of the Chief Minister? If he does not do it, then must we assume that even they have chosen to give their assent to this form of politics? The Chief Minister has alleged that the Ramakrishna Mission has been threatened. Let the Ramakrishna Mission clearly articulate who all have threatened them. If they fail to say so, let them say at least that Belur Math or the Ramakrishna Mission is not anybody's play-field for politics.
ANALYSIS :
Sri Rantidev Sengupta has levelled the charge that the Chief Minister has used the Belur Math platform to deliver a political speech from start to finish. Well, I was not there at Belur Math on 11 September, 2018 and so could not hear the Chief Minister's speech in person. What I have heard is but the 17 minute clip of the speech on YouTube on the basis of which I cannot claim to judge the proceedings with perfect accuracy and come to definite conclusions that I would consider to be free of error completely. But from what I have been able to thus gather from the aforesaid video clip, it did not seem to me as such to be a political speech through and through, although, I must confess that towards the latter part of the address, it did assume for a while a distinct political colour.
But is it not natural for a Chief Minister who in Rantidev Sengupta's estimation is of mediocre intelligence to be so caught up in her habitual expressions and conversational modes in the absence of sufficient knowledge about Swami Vivekananda or his celebrated Chicago Address? Had the concerned person been an erudite in the subject, she surely would not have had the impelling desire to digress from the topic and wander into her known terrain of political certitude. The charm of discussion on Swamiji and his epoch-making address would have then held her within historical bounds related to the address and prevented her from straying into forbidden zone. But the very paucity of factual details that were required to make her speech telling to the audience and her pronounced past habits of political propaganda perhaps prompted her onto her temporary tirade against her political adversaries from the podium of Belur Math which has historically maintained a principled apolitical stance in all matters pertaining to its functioning. So far Sri Sengupta seemingly has not much of a grievance, for his expectations are limited from a politician of a mediocre mind as honourable Ms Mamata Banerjee is by his own admission. But when it comes to the Belur Math executive authorities like Swamis Suhitananda and Suvirananda, his take on the issue is altogether different. And this is what we will now analyse.
The Chief Minister's entire speech was littered with factual errors, in all probability owing to her scanty and hastily dressed-up knowledge on the subject matter of the memorial meeting. She made many erroneous references about Swamiji's life as a wandering monk prior to his departure for America and post his arrival there. These have been overlooked as they did not carry political overtones. But when she apparently made gross errors, through ignorance or through considered deliberation, regarding the Vivekananda Memorial Rock Temple Committee's management where she stated that the Ramakrishna Mission has been ousted from governance and it has been usurped by some other body, she falsified history, so avers Rantidev Sengupta. Mamata Banerjee then made a stupendous statement that after this Belur Math would be likewise hijacked by the same power. These were wild assertions in Rantidev's reckoning having no credible foundation to stand on and ought to have been contradicted by the luminous monks of the Order who adorned the stage with the Chief Minister.
Sengupta's contention is that Swami Suvirananda, the General Secretary of the Order, ought to contradict the inaccurate statement of the Chief Minister and bring it to her notice that it was Eknath Ranade's effort that helped rescue the Vivekananda Rock from the clutches of the Christian missionaries and thereafter helped build the Vivekananda Memorial Rock Temple there. So, by Sengupta's inference, the assertion of the Chief Minister that the governance of the Rock Temple has passed from the hands of the Ramakrishna Mission to some other body is a blatant lie, for the Mission was in no way in executive control of its construction or administration ever. And this point ought to be forthwith clarified by the general Secretary of the Order, Swami Suvirananda, by way of statement of fact, reckons Sengupta. Should he fail to do so, it will then imply that the Mission are in agreement with the kind of politics that is obtaining in the State these days.
Another very serious allegation made by the Chief Minister was that the Ramakrishna Mission has been threatened by certain parties or agencies whose names she did not reveal. According to Sengupta, the Mission ought to forthwith come clean as to who all have threatened them. Should they fail to do so, then they must at least declare that the Belur Math or the Ramakrishna Mission was not anybody's play-field for politics. Here it seems Sengupta has a valid point as the naming of the power that has threatened the Mission and the declaration that its platform may not be used for political purpose is quite in keeping with both the security of the Mission and its strictly apolitical tradition till date.
As the debate develops, all sides of the controversy will have to be examined and the resolution of arguments seen through to its eventual end. Till then let us suspend judgement on this momentous issue.
End of Part 8
To be serialised...
Written by Sugata Bose
Now let us make an analysis of Sri Rantidev Sengupta's original post, dated 12 September, 2018, which has created such a furore on facebook and other social media.
TEXT OF ORIGINAL POST (FIRST PERSON BENGALI) OF RANTIDEV SENGUPTA RENDERED INTO ENGLISH IN FIRST PERSON BY SUGATA BOSE (Sugata Bose). THE THIRD INSTALMENT FOLLOWS :
Yesterday, from the podium of the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math, the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee delivered a political speech from start to finish. I do not blame her. A politician of her sort of mediocre intelligence cannot be faulted for not having discretion or propriety of any consequence. Over and above this she said that Kanyakumari has been seized from the control of the Ramakrishna Mission. After this even the Belur Math will be seized from them. My question is as to what the Brahmajnani monks of the Mission who lit up the podium with their presence were then doing. The Chief Minister may not have known but surely these Brahmajnanis knew that it was Eknath Ranade's endeavour that helped build the Vivekananda Memorial having rescued the Vivekananda Rock from the clutches of the Christian missionaries. Ought not Swami Suvirananda to contradict this downright false statement of the Chief Minister? If he does not do it, then must we assume that even they have chosen to give their assent to this form of politics? The Chief Minister has alleged that the Ramakrishna Mission has been threatened. Let the Ramakrishna Mission clearly articulate who all have threatened them. If they fail to say so, let them say at least that Belur Math or the Ramakrishna Mission is not anybody's play-field for politics.
ANALYSIS :
Sri Rantidev Sengupta has levelled the charge that the Chief Minister has used the Belur Math platform to deliver a political speech from start to finish. Well, I was not there at Belur Math on 11 September, 2018 and so could not hear the Chief Minister's speech in person. What I have heard is but the 17 minute clip of the speech on YouTube on the basis of which I cannot claim to judge the proceedings with perfect accuracy and come to definite conclusions that I would consider to be free of error completely. But from what I have been able to thus gather from the aforesaid video clip, it did not seem to me as such to be a political speech through and through, although, I must confess that towards the latter part of the address, it did assume for a while a distinct political colour.
But is it not natural for a Chief Minister who in Rantidev Sengupta's estimation is of mediocre intelligence to be so caught up in her habitual expressions and conversational modes in the absence of sufficient knowledge about Swami Vivekananda or his celebrated Chicago Address? Had the concerned person been an erudite in the subject, she surely would not have had the impelling desire to digress from the topic and wander into her known terrain of political certitude. The charm of discussion on Swamiji and his epoch-making address would have then held her within historical bounds related to the address and prevented her from straying into forbidden zone. But the very paucity of factual details that were required to make her speech telling to the audience and her pronounced past habits of political propaganda perhaps prompted her onto her temporary tirade against her political adversaries from the podium of Belur Math which has historically maintained a principled apolitical stance in all matters pertaining to its functioning. So far Sri Sengupta seemingly has not much of a grievance, for his expectations are limited from a politician of a mediocre mind as honourable Ms Mamata Banerjee is by his own admission. But when it comes to the Belur Math executive authorities like Swamis Suhitananda and Suvirananda, his take on the issue is altogether different. And this is what we will now analyse.
The Chief Minister's entire speech was littered with factual errors, in all probability owing to her scanty and hastily dressed-up knowledge on the subject matter of the memorial meeting. She made many erroneous references about Swamiji's life as a wandering monk prior to his departure for America and post his arrival there. These have been overlooked as they did not carry political overtones. But when she apparently made gross errors, through ignorance or through considered deliberation, regarding the Vivekananda Memorial Rock Temple Committee's management where she stated that the Ramakrishna Mission has been ousted from governance and it has been usurped by some other body, she falsified history, so avers Rantidev Sengupta. Mamata Banerjee then made a stupendous statement that after this Belur Math would be likewise hijacked by the same power. These were wild assertions in Rantidev's reckoning having no credible foundation to stand on and ought to have been contradicted by the luminous monks of the Order who adorned the stage with the Chief Minister.
Sengupta's contention is that Swami Suvirananda, the General Secretary of the Order, ought to contradict the inaccurate statement of the Chief Minister and bring it to her notice that it was Eknath Ranade's effort that helped rescue the Vivekananda Rock from the clutches of the Christian missionaries and thereafter helped build the Vivekananda Memorial Rock Temple there. So, by Sengupta's inference, the assertion of the Chief Minister that the governance of the Rock Temple has passed from the hands of the Ramakrishna Mission to some other body is a blatant lie, for the Mission was in no way in executive control of its construction or administration ever. And this point ought to be forthwith clarified by the general Secretary of the Order, Swami Suvirananda, by way of statement of fact, reckons Sengupta. Should he fail to do so, it will then imply that the Mission are in agreement with the kind of politics that is obtaining in the State these days.
Another very serious allegation made by the Chief Minister was that the Ramakrishna Mission has been threatened by certain parties or agencies whose names she did not reveal. According to Sengupta, the Mission ought to forthwith come clean as to who all have threatened them. Should they fail to do so, then they must at least declare that the Belur Math or the Ramakrishna Mission was not anybody's play-field for politics. Here it seems Sengupta has a valid point as the naming of the power that has threatened the Mission and the declaration that its platform may not be used for political purpose is quite in keeping with both the security of the Mission and its strictly apolitical tradition till date.
As the debate develops, all sides of the controversy will have to be examined and the resolution of arguments seen through to its eventual end. Till then let us suspend judgement on this momentous issue.
End of Part 8
To be serialised...
Written by Sugata Bose
No comments:
Post a Comment