Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Tamil Nahdu’s Kanyakumari for a three-day meditation trip, after ending the campaigning for the final phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha Election. The Prime Minister began his say on Friday by offering ‘arghya’ to the rising Sun at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in the southernmost city of the country.
Modi’s 45-hour meditation from the evening of Thursday to the evening of June 1 is at Dhyan Mandapam, the place where Swami Vivekananda — a spiritual icon admired by the PM — is believed to have had a divine vision about ‘Bharat Mata’ during meditation in 1892.
This is the Prime Minister’s ninth visit to Tamil Nadu since Jan, but it is the first time he’s staying at the memorial.
Modi had made similar trips after the end of the election campaigns in 2014 and 2019 too. In 2014, he went to Shivaji’s Pratapgarh and in 2019, he visited a cave near the Kedarnath temple.
Political Row
Modi’s spiritual visit to Kanyakumari was criticised by opposition parties including Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC).
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that TMC would lodge a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) about PM Modi’s meditation in Kanyakumari. “We will complain. He can meditate, but it cannot be aired on television…Does anyone have to get cameras to do meditation,” Mamata asked.
Congress’ Bhupesh Baghel also criticised the Prime Minister’s visit and said, “What was the need to remember God? Kangana Ranaut made him God, Sambit Patra says that God is PM Modi’s ‘bhakt’. Since campaigning is not allowed after 6 pm today, PM Modi has gone there for publicity.”
A delegation of Congress leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Abhishek Singhvi and Syed Naseer Hussain also met the EC and handed over a memorandum in this regard along with 27 other complaints of alleged model code violations by the BJP in the last few days.
Contering the Opposition, BJP Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla slammed the INDIA bloc for being “anti-Sanatan” and questioning Modi’s meditation.
“What has happened to Congress and the INDIA bloc? If the Prime Minister says something, they have a problem. If he goes to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial for meditation without saying anything, even then, they have a problem,” Poonawalla said.
He said this reflects the opposition’s “frustration” and “anti-Sanatan” mindset.
“These (opposition) people opposed Ram Temple, labelled it as useless and said that there is no relevance of Lord Ram. They used phrases like Hindu terror and said that Sanatan is a disease. Now, these people have a problem with a Hindu meditating peacefully and will issue fatwas?” Poonawala said.
Responding to allegations that the meditation violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), Poonawalla said that PM Modi is not violating the MCC. “The Prime Minister is not campaigning or promoting, he is not saying something, he is not passing any political statements, nor is this a political gathering,” he said.
He said that the opposition claims that meditation violates the MCC and should not be covered by the media. “Today, in the times of social media, everyone has a smartphone and data costs have fallen by 90 per cent. If someone is making a video, will you stop them?” he asked.
PM’s Tamil Nadu Visit
After arriving from nearby Thiruvananthapuram by helicopter on Thursday, Modi worshipped at the Bhagavathi Amman temple and then went to the rock memorial by a ferry service and started to start meditation that is scheduled to go on till June 1.
Clad in a dhoti and a white shawl, Modi prayed at the temple and circumambulated the ‘garbhagriha’. Priests performed a special ‘arthi’ and he was given temple ‘prasad’ that included a shawl and a framed photograph of the presiding deity of the temple.
Later, he reached the rock memorial by a ferry service operated by the state government-run shipping corporation and began his meditation at the ‘dhyan mandapam.’
Before he embarked on the dhyan exercise, for a while, Modi stood on the stairs leading to the mandapam that offers breathtaking views of the sea that surrounds the memorial from all sides.
The prime minister showered flowers on the portraits of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, mother Sri Sarada Devi and also paid floral tributes to Swami Vivekananda, whose life-size statue on a high pedestal adores the mandapam. Modi later commenced the sadhana (spiritual practice) in the mandapam.
Ahead of his departure on June 1, Modi is likely to visit the Thiruvalluvar statue, next to the memorial. Both the memorial and 133-ft statue were built on tiny islets, that are separate and mound-like rocky formations in the sea.
All arrangements, including heavy security, are in place for Modi’s 45-hour stay at the famed memorial named after the revered Hindu saint.
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