INDIA bloc’s opposition to PM Modi’s meditation betrays anti-Sanatan mindset: Shehzad Poonawalla

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], May 30 (ANI): BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Thursday hit out at the INDIA alliance for opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meditation at Vivekananda Rock Memorial, saying that it betrays their anti-Sanatan mindset.

PM Modi goes for the meditation on May 30 when the silence period set in before the voting on June 1 for the seventh and the last phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election. Parties in the INDIA bloc opposed the PM’s meditation saying that it violated the Model Code of Conduct.

“If someone wants to go for meditation that too when the election campaign ends on May 30, as that person took inspiration from Swami Vivekananda, the Congress party is calling it a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC),” Poonawalla told ANI.

“It is because anti-Hindu attitude of the Congress. A party like TMC is also opposing Swami Vivekananda. Firstly, they opposed the Ram temple, called Sanatan as dengue and now Congress and INDI alliance have problems with someone going for meditation. People say that he (Rahul Gandhi) often goes abroad for meditation, he can go there at his centre of faith and no one stops him,” he added.

Congress on Wednesday approached the Election Commission, saying that the Prime Minister’s move constitutes a “violation” of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

“We told the Election Commission that during the silence period of 48 hours, no one should be allowed to campaign, directly or indirectly,” senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters after meeting Election Commission officials at the poll body’s office in Delhi.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that the Trinamool Congress will complain to the Election Commission if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meditation in Kanyakumari is televised, alleging that it would amount to a violation of the code of conduct.

According to legal experts, the telecast of meditation will not have any violation of MCC as he will be not uttering any word that can be linked to the election campaign.

“The Prime Minister had gone on a similar meditation exercise in a Kedarnath cave after the 2019 poll campaign and that was not in violation of MCC,” a legal expert said.