Following the conclusion of his campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha Election’s final round, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spending three days in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, engaging in meditation. At the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in the nation’s southernmost city, the prime minister said “arghya” to the rising Sun to start his speech on Friday.
The 45-hour meditation by PM Modi will take place at Dhyan Mandapam, where the spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda, who is revered by the PM, is said to have had a divine vision of “Bharat Mata” in 1892. The meditation will take place from Thursday evening until June 1st evening.
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.”
VIDEO | PM Modi meditates at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, #Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. PM Modi will meditate till June 1 at the same place where Swami Vivekananda meditated.
(Source: Third Party) pic.twitter.com/qLSV0TZ64y
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 31, 2024
The Prime Minister is making his eighth trip to Tamil Nadu since January, but this is the first time he will be lodging at the memorial.
Modi had also taken comparable trips in 2014 and 2019 following the conclusion of the electoral campaigns. He visited Pratapgarh, the home of Shivaji, in 2014, and a cave close to the Kedarnath shrine in 2019.
Randeep Surjewala, Abhishek Singhvi, and Syed Naseer Hussain were among the Congress representatives who met with the EC delegation. They brought with them a memorandum regarding the model code infractions that the BJP is accused of committing, as well as 27 other complaints.
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.
On Thursday, following his helicopter arrival from nearby Thiruvananthapuram, Modi said prayers at the Bhagavathi Amman temple. He then took a ferry to the rock memorial, where he began his meditation, which will last till June 1.
Modi circumambulated the “garbhagriha” and offered prayers at the temple while wearing a dhoti and a white shawl. He received temple “prasad,” which comprised a shawl and a framed picture of the temple’s presiding deity, after priests performed a unique “arthi.”
He later took a ferry run by the state government-owned shipping company to the rock memorial, where he started 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.
