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Calcutta, Jan. 20: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee today urged Ramakrishna Math and Mission to build an institute that would churn out better human beings — unnatatoro manush — and assured all help in doing so.
“You do a lot of work. We want to build good human beings. But can you count your fingers and tell me how many of us are really good human beings? I would urge you to build an institute that would produce better human beings,” Mamata said. “You will get all the help. If required, I will even paint pictures for 365 days for this.”
Speaking at the valedictory session of a daylong programme highlighting the “significance of the life and works of Swami Vivekananda in the present day world” at the mission headquarters in Belur, Mamata said the Math and Mission had been producing some of “our best brains”.
The chief minister didn’t miss the opportunity to underline a point with an oblique reference to Bengal’s politics.
“We were almost forgetting our glorious past with the likes of Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore. We were being made to forget. But thankfully, we are here and we have got an opportunity to pay our tributes,” Mamata said.
The apparent reference to the CPM, some of whose leaders were accused of undermining Swami Vivekananda’s contribution to the nation, was not all lost on the 14,000-odd crowd.
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