PM begins 48-hour meditation at Vivekananda Rock Memorial

New Delhi, May 30

As the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha election wrapped up on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari today and began his 48-hour meditation at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial.

The PM commenced his meditation at the Dhyana Mandapam, where Swami Vivekananda had meditated in 1892 to see a clear vision of India.

With the move, PM Modi seeks to give a message of national unity as Kanyakumari is the meeting point of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

Around 2,000 cops will be stationed at the memorial for PM’s security and sources said Navy will maintain a vigil too.

The PM landed in Kanyakumari after a day-long campaign in Punjab on Thursday and prayed at Bhagavathy Amman Temple in the southernmost top of India.

The Congress, CPM and TMC have questioned PM’s move and said it aimed to circumvent the silence period restrictions imposed after the end of the campaign until the voting day.

The Congress on Wednesday petitioned the Election Commission asking for directions to ensure visuals of the PM meditating were not aired by the media as it would amount to violation of the model code of conduct.

In Tamil Nadu, the CPM wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner asking for a ban on the visuals of the meditation exercise, on grounds that this could influence the voters.

Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee also said in Kolkata that the PM could meditate “but why in the presence of cameras?”

In 2019, PM’s visuals meditating in Rudra Cave near the Kedarnath shrine after the end of the poll campaign had gone viral.

This time, the PM will meditate from Thursday evening to June 1 evening at the Rock Memorial.