Senior BJP Leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his meditation at the Vivekananda memorial at Kanyakumari this evening. Before starting the meditation he paid obeisance at the Bhagavathi Amman Temple at the shore town.
He was given a purna kumbh honour at the temple. He later reached the Vivekananda memorial situated at the Bay of Bengal by M.L. Vivekananda ship. Mr. Modi will meditate till the 1st of June. Later he will also pay floral tributes at the 133 ft tall Tiruvalluvar statue situated near the Vivekananda rock.
He is scheduled to reach Delhi via Trivandrum on that day. Kanyakumari or Cape Comorin is the southernmost tip of India’s mainland. It is also a place where the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean converge. Coastal and maritime security have been tightened due to the visit of the Prime Minister.
Later, he reached the rock memorial by a ferry service operated by the state government-run shipping corporation and began 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.
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.
While outfits including Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam staged a black flag demonstration in Madurai opposing Modi, social media platform ‘X’ also witnessed a flood of #GoBackModi posts, amid political opposition to the broadcast of his meditation in view of the seventh final phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections on June 1.
All arrangements, including heavy security, are in place for Modi’s 45-hour stay at the famed memorial named after the revered Hindu saint.
This is the first time the Prime Minister will be staying at the memorial, a monument built in tribute to Swami Vivekananda, who meditated over the rocks inside the sea towards the end of 1892.
