Hang Vivekananda's pics at home for BJP rule: Tripura CM

Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the northeastern state would remain in power for the next three decades if 80 per cent houses hang pictures of Swami Vivekananda and his message.

Deb addressing the members of the BJP Mahila Morcha, the women wing of the party, in Agartala called upon the activists to spread the message of Swami Vivekananda and distribute his pictures to inspire the people of the state.

"I have seen, even in my village, people hanging pictures of Communist leaders -- Jyoti Basu, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong -- in their drawing rooms. Could we not hang pictures of Swami Vivekananda? Our party will keep our ideologies and sanskars (values) -- if 80 per cent of Tripura houses hang pictures of Swami Vivekananda, then this government will remain for another 30-35 years," Deb said on Wednesday.

"Swami Vivekananda said to talk less, keep silent and concentrate on work. Our energy gets wasted if we talk much. So, we should not waste our energy," said Deb.

He asked the mahila morcha activists to highlight Indian culture, sanskriti among the people.

Earlier in August, Deb had distributed books on Swami Vivekananda to COVID-19 patients to keep them mentally strong and motivated.

Later, speaking about different developmental activities by the BJP-IPFT government, the chief minister said his government has hiked the amount of different social pensions, salary of government employees, monthly allowances of village panchayat pradhans and their deputies, introduced e-public distribution system, Ayushman Tripura health scheme, increased allocation of fund for MLA Fund Relief.

He also said: "There is a difference between taking initiative and its implementation. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took the initiative of introducing three-tier panchayat system, but the results started during ex-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees regime. And after Narendra Modi ji came to power, he decided to give Rs 80 lakh fund directly to the village panchayats to strengthen them."