Mamata Banerjee writes to PM Modi, demands national holiday on Swami Vivekananda, Netaji birthdays

The move comes closely after the ruling party slugged it out with BJP over the celebration of the 155th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on January 12.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (File|PTI)
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (File|PTI)

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the birthdays of Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose be declared as national holidays.

The Trinamool Congress supremo tweeted: “Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose are national and international icons. I have written a letter to the Prime Minister urging the Government of India to declare both their birthdays (Jan 12 for Swamiji and Jan 23 for Netaji) as national holidays.”

The move comes closely after the ruling party slugged it out with BJP over the celebration of the 155th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on January 12. Some 14 BJP workers were injured when TMC workers allegedly attacked the saffron party’s statewide motorbike rally ‘Sankalp Pratirodh Abhijaan’ brought out from Contai in Purba Medinipur district in south Bengal to Coochbehar district in north Bengal on the birth anniversary of what BJP claimed an ‘essentially Hindu saint’. The Calcutta High Court had to budge in to ensure peace in the rally.

Of late, the Trinamool Congress supremo has never missed an opportunity to mention the names of Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in her speeches in an attempt to portray them as the icons of Bengal over fears that the saffron party may appropriate the icons as their own. She even hit out at the BJP saying ‘saffron did not suit everyone’.

Political observers in the state have pointed out that the chief minister is attempting to play the Bengali card in her fight against the Centre and opined that demanding national holidays on birthdays of the iconic figures of the state would have a profound impact on the public.

She had recently courted both criticisms and invited two FIRs against her for calling National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam as a ‘conspiracy to expel Bengalis’ from the northeastern state.

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