"Citizen of India can go anywhere": Assam BJP MP Pabitra Margherita on PM Modi's 45-hour-long meditation in Kanyakumari

Guwahati (Assam) [India], May 31 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Pabitra Margherita slammed the Congress party for opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled meditation at Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari on Friday.

"Only the Gandhi Vadra family knows what their agenda is. A citizen of India can go anywhere for meditation, and this has been India's culture for a long time. I consider it pathetic for the Congress party. When the Pran Pratishtha was held, Rahul Gandhi was roaming in sensitive areas. He opposed it. And now, when the Prime Minister, or any citizen goes for meditation or perform puja or yoga, what is wrong with it? Nobody can answer this question. Only Rahul Gandhi and his family know it. What is Congress doing?" Margherita said while speaking to ANI on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meditate from Friday until June 1 evening, throughout the day and night, at the Dhyan Mandapam, which happens to be the same place where Swami Vivekanand meditated.

Notably, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election too, PM Modi took a similar trip to the Kedarnath shrine before the final phase of the elections and meditated at a cave.

The Congress has filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day meditation retreat in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari from Thursday to Saturday would violate the '48-hour silence period provision' of the Model Code of Conduct ahead of the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha polling.

The campaigning for the seventh phase of polling was over on Thursday.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday offered prayers at Bhagavathy Amman Temple in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, after the culmination of the Lok Sabha election campaign. (ANI)