9/11 attacks catchword of international terrorism: Pranab

Kolkata, Feb 4: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday warned against the danger of fundamentalism and said what Swami Vivekananda had said on this evil during his famous speech at Chicago in 1893 was still relevant across the world.

Referring to Vivekananda's speech at Parliament of World Religions at Chicago on September 11,1893, Mukherjee said 108 years before the 9/11 attacks in New York City and Washington, "Swamiji had spoken of the dangers of fundamentalism and bigotry which encourage violence".

"The 9/11 terrorist attacks has become a catchword of international terrorism", Mukherjee said.

The Finance Minister, who was a releasing a special edition of the English translation of Gitanjalibased on Tagore and another book called Nameless Recognition -The Impact of Rabindranath Tagore on other Indian Literature at a programme of the Asiatic Society in Kolkata, described Tagore and Swami Vivekananda as great sons of India.

He said both the the Centre and state governments had undertaken a series of programmes, both in India and abroad, to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore and Vivekananda.

To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore, the Union Ministry of Culture, under the guidance of National Implementation Committee chaired by Mukherjee, has undertaken several projects, schemes and events.

He said one of the projects is compilation of a Web-bibliography of works of and by Tagore. Apart from works by Tagore, literary criticism and other works on Tagore published in India or abroad have been included in the bibliography.

He said modernisation and renovation of buildings named after Tagore across the country were also among the measures taken to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.

Mukherjee said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also sent a proposal to the Centre for modernisation of "Rabindra Bhavans" across the state.

PTI