Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Kanyakumari Tamil Nahdu for a three-day meditation trip, after ending his campaign for the last phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections. The Prime Minister began his remarks on Friday by offering ‘arghya’ to the rising Sun at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in the country’s southernmost city.
Modi’s 45-hour meditation from Thursday evening to the evening of June 1 was at the Dhyan Mandapam, the place where Swami Vivekananda – a spiritual icon admired by the PM – is believed to have had a divine vision of ‘Bharat Mata’ during meditation. in 1892.
This is the Prime Minister’s ninth visit to Tamil Nadu since Jan, but this is the first time he has stayed at the memorial.
Modi made a similar trip after the end of his election campaign in 2014 and 2019 as well. In 2014, he went to Pratapgarh Shivaji and in 2019, he visited a cave near Kedarnath temple.
Political Row
Modi’s spiritual visit to Kanyakumari was criticized by opposition parties including Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC).
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the TMC will file a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) about PM Modi’s meditation in Kanyakumari. “We will complain. He can meditate, but it can’t be televised…Should anyone take a camera to do meditation,” Mamata said.
Congress’s Bhupesh Baghel also criticized the Prime Minister’s visit and said, “Is it necessary to remember God? Kangana Ranaut made him a God, Sambit Patra said God is PM Modi’s ‘bhakt’. As 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 submitted a memorandum in this regard along with 27 other complaints on alleged model code violations by the BJP in the past few days.
Against the opposition, BJP Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla slammed the INDIA bloc for being “anti-Sanatan” and questioned Modi’s meditation.
“What happened to the Congress and the INDIA bloc? If the Prime Minister says something, they have a problem. If he goes to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial to meditate without saying anything, even then he has a problem,” said Poonawalla.
He said this reflected the “frustrated” and “anti-Sanatan” mindset of the opposition.
“These people (opposition) oppose the Ram Temple, label it useless and say it has no relevance to Lord Ram. They use phrases like Hindu terror and say Sanatan is a disease. Now these people have a problem with Hindus who meditates peacefully and will give a fatwa? Poonawala said.
Responding to allegations that the meditation violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), Poonawalla said that PM Modi did not violate the MCC. “The Prime Minister is not campaigning or promoting, he is not saying anything, he is not giving a political statement, or this is a political meeting,” he said.
He said that the opposition has argued that meditation is a violation of PKS and should not be covered by the media. “Today, in the age of social media, everyone has a smartphone and data costs have dropped by 90 percent. If someone made a video, would you stop?” he asked.
Tamil Nadu PM visit
After arriving from Thiruvananthapuram by helicopter on Thursday, Modi paid obeisance at the Bhagavathi Amman temple and then went to the stone monument by ferry service and began his scheduled meditation till June 1.
Dressed in a white dhoti and shawl, Modi prayed in the temple and circumambulated the ‘garbhagriha’. The priest performs a special ‘arthi’ and he is given the temple’s ‘prasad’ which includes a shawl and a framed photo of the presiding deity of the temple.
Later, he reached the rock memorial by a ferry service operated by a state government-run shipping company and started meditating in the ‘dhyan mandapam.’
Before starting the exercise of dhyan, for some time, Modi stood on the steps leading to the mandapam which offers a stunning view of the sea that surrounds the memorial from all sides.
The prime minister showered flowers on the portrait 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 then started his sadhana (spiritual practice) in the mandapam.
Before his departure on June 1, Modi will visit the statue of Thiruvalluvar, next to the memorial. The memorial statue and 133 feet were built on small, isolated islands and rock formations like mounds in the sea.
All arrangements, including heavy security, were put in place for Modi to spend 45 hours at the famous memorial named after a revered Hindu saint.
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