Source: The Telegraph
KOLKATA, INDIA, April 9, 2001: Religious leaders and followers of Ramakrishna Mission are appalled by the manner in which the famous words spoken by the sage to actress Nati Binodini have been portrayed in cartoons plastered all over city walls of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). The cartoon’s sage, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, with an Ajit Panja look and the devotee: unmistakably Mamata Banerjee — with the words “May you find enlightenment,” and the response by the devotee “I don’t want enlightenment, please make me chief minister, O Lord.” Ajit Panja is a local politician who, as an actor, has played Ramakrishna. Mamata Banerjee is a popular Bengali politician. Poll graffiti as a cartoon is proving a potent weapon to ridicule rivals but the dig at Trinamul leader Ajit Panja’s portrayal of Ramakrishna, and Mamata’s ambition, has the monks’ disapproval. They described the graffiti as a “vulgar attempt to denigrate the image of the great spiritual leader.” Swami Sanatanananda, general secretary of Baranagar Ramakrishna Mission, said, “We don’t approve of anyone using Sage Ramakrishna as an element of caricature.”