Legacy issues: Congress seeks to claim Swami Vivekananda in Karnataka

BENGALURU: In an apparent bid to lay claim to Swami Vivekananda legacy, the Congress government in Karnataka is spending Rs 5 crore to spread awareness about the saint by holding district and state level events.

This is the first time the state has marked Vivekananda Jayanti at such a scale. “The BJP has appropriated Swami Vivekananda. But it was Rajiv Gandhi, in 1984, who announced that Vivekananda’s birthday was to be celebrated as National Youth Day,” AICC spokesperson Dinesh Gundu Rao, who is also a minister in the Siddaramaiah government, told ET.

“We are just taking that thought forward and using the occasion to spread awareness among the youth on social issues,” Rao said.

State departments including youth services, higher education, Kannada and culture and the information have combined to ensure that awareness programmes, seminars, skits, competitions and rallies are held in nearly 1,500 degree colleges, 17 universities and polytechnics during the weeklong celebrations that culminate on Tuesday.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will address a statelevel convention to mark the conclusion of the Rashtreeya Yuva Saptaha (National Youth Week), marking Vivekananda’s 153rd birth anniversary. The state Congress unit, along with Youth Congress and its student wing NSUI, have also been holding events to mark the birthday of Vivekananda.

However, the state government has made the convention on Tuesday an all-party event. It has invited Union ministers Ananthkumar and DV Sadananda Gowda, both Bengaluru city MPs, and Venkaiah Naidu, Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka to the event.