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.
