On 6th March, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a protest in Kolkata against alleged large scale removal of voters in the state’s electoral rolls in the SIR exercise conducted by the Election Commission. At the event on that day, a man in saffron robes was introduced as a monk from the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission in Minakhan and claimed his name had been deleted from the voter list.
The Monk said that he is the president of the Minakhan branch of the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, and claimed that despite serving the organisation for over 14 years, his name removed from the voter list after the SIR. He added that he has approached the CM with the hope that the SIR exercise will be cancelled.
Mamata Banerjee said after his comments, “It’s a shame how this Nirjatan Commission is torturing even a monk who had his name in the 2002 voters roll.”
However, a week after the incident, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission has said that they don’t have any branch in Minakhan, there is no such monk in the organisation. In a public notice issued in newspapers on 15th March, the organisation said that the claim that a monk is president of such a branch is completely baseless and misleading.
The notice issued by General Secretary Pravrajika Atandraprana stated, “We want to make it clear that The Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Dakshineswar, Kolkata 700076 has no branch at Minakha, and the claim that a Monk (male) is the President of such an organisation is entirely baseless and misleading. We therefore categorically dissociate ourselves from such claims and statements made in public.
The public notice further mentioned, “It is further notified that the names “Sri Sarada Math” and “The Ramakrishna Sarada Mission” also known as “Ramakrishna Sarada Mission”, together with their official seal, symbol, emblem and logo, are legally protected under The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. Any individual or organisation using these names or emblems without lawful authority shall be liable for appropriate legal action under the said Act.”
The notice noted that Sri Sarada Math was established in 1954 and registered on 09.09.1959 by the President of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, in order to fulfil the vision of Swami Vivekananda to found a women’s Math with Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi as the centre of inspiration. Later on, the Trustees of Sri Sarada Math established the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission in 1960 to carry on educational, cultural and charitable activities.
The notice by Ramkrishna Sarada Mission implying that TMC presented a fake monk to oppose the Election Commission’s SIR came on the day the ECI is scheduled to announce the dates of assembly elections for West Bengal and some other states. Notably, TMC and its allies have launched a campaign to remove Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and 180 opposition MPs have signed a notice for his impeachment.
