Referring to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as ‘swami’ reflects insensitivity, Mamata reacts to PM’s social media post

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday (February 19, 2026) took strong exception to a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi referring to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa as “Swami”. In a post on the social media platform X, the Prime Minister offered tributes to the spiritual master on his birth anniversary and addressed him as “Swami Ramakrishna”.

“Shocked again! Yet again, our Prime Minister aggressively displays his cultural insensitivity to great figures of Bengal. Today is the janmatithi of Yugavatara [God’s incarnation in our age] Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva. While trying to hail the great saint on this occasion, our PM added an unprecedented and improper prefix to the great saint’s name, “Swami”!,” the Chief Minister posted, highlighting the post by the Prime Minister.

The prefix of Swami is usually used to refer to Swami Vivekanandaa and other monastic disciples of Ramakrishna as well as the monks of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

The West Bengal Chief Minister highlighted this point and explained on her post that “while his ascetic disciples constituted the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission after their Master’s demise, and those monks were then called ‘Swami’ as per Indian traditions, the Master, the Acharya, himself continued to be referred to as Thakur“.

“The prefix ‘Swami’ was meant for his disciples in the Ramakrishna Order; but the holy trinity of the Order remained Thakur–Ma–Swamiji. Thakur is Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsadeva, Ma is Ma Sarada, and Swamiji is Swami Vivekananda,” Ms. Banerjee said, urging the Prime Minister “not to discover new prefixes and suffixes for the great Renaissance figures of Bengal who shaped modern India”.

The development comes weeks after the Trinamool Congress leadership had critricised the Prime Minister for referring to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the writer of Vande Mataram as “Bankim da”.

Participating in a discussion in Lok Sabha on 150 years of Vande Mataram, the Prime Minister on September 11 had referred to the writer of the National Song “Bankim da”. After intervention of Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy, Mr. Modi switched to “Bankim Babu” but the Trinamool Congress has launched a scathing attack. The Trinamool Congress has often dubbed BJP as a party of “outsiders” and the development assumes significance before the upcoming Assembly polls in the State.

Ms. Banerjee had demanded an apology from the Prime Minister over the issue. Bamkim Chandra Chattopadhyay is considered one of the greatest writers and icons from the State and is often referred to as “Rishi Bankim”.

With Assembly polls due in the next few months, the Trinamool Congress is leaving no stone unturned to highlight any “slight” by the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership when it comes to social and religious icons of the State.

In a post on X, BJP leader and the party’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya stated that the prefix ‘Swami’ was not a reference to the title used by monks of the Ramakrishna Mission order but that ‘Swami’ means ‘Great Master’.