Narendra Modi, who is eyeing a rare third term as prime minister of India, traveled to the southernmost tip of the country on Friday, where he will engage in two days of meditation as the nation enters the final phase of the election on Saturday.
A video of Modi meditating at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanniyakumari, Tamil Nadu – a famous pilgrimage site and tourist attraction in India’s southernmost tip. It is the same place that Swami Vivekananda, a renowned Hindu monk, is believed to have attained enlightenment in 1893.
Vivekananda is best known for his landmark speech at the World Parliament of Religions, which is believed to have brought global recognition to Indian spiritualism.
The episode is reminiscent of Modi’s day-long meditation in a cave in northern India’s Uttarakhand state amid polling in the last general election in 2019. The Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies went on to win that election with a decisive margin, earning the right to form the government.
Last week, Modi, who is hailed by his supporters for advancing India’s spirituality globally, claimed that God is guiding him in his work. “I am convinced that God has sent me for a purpose and once that purpose is completed, my job will be done,” he told NDTV, adding that he has “completely devoted” himself to God.
When asked what his purpose is, Modi said that God has not revealed the plans to him. “He keeps making me do things; I do not have direct access to dial him to ask what plans he has for me.”
The last polling date of India’s election marathon is June 1, and the results for all seven election phases conducted since April 19 will be counted on June 4. The first six phases of polling were marked by low voter turnout compared to previous years – attributed to the weather conditions and voter apathy.
The opposition has criticized Modi’s meditation trip to Kanniyakumari, calling it a violation of the Model Code of Conduct – a series of guidelines for political parties and candidates enforced by the Election Commission.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav said the prime minister is doing “a film shoot and marketing” rather than meditation.
“Modi’s meditation drama appears to mock Swami Vivekananda’s teachings. This only has a political motive not a spiritual one,” K. Selvaperunthugai, the head of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, the regional wing of the main opposition party, the Congress, said in statement issued on Wednesday.
During his second term, the prime minister fulfilled several of his core pledges – overturning Article 370 of the constitution which grants special rights to the Kashmir region, enacting a citizenship act to fast-track naturalization for ‘minority’ communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, most of whom are Hindus, and erecting a temple devoted to the Hindu deity Ram in Ayodhya on a contested plot of land where a mosque once stood.
Modi is seeking reelection for the third time from Varanasi, a Hindu holy town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous in the country and key to the final election results. Varanasi will vote in the seventh and final phase of the election.
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