Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be celebrating Pongal in the national capital on Sunday morning. The festival, which is a huge Affair in the Southern part of the country, will see PM Modi’s participation at Union Minister Dr L Murugan’s house in New Delhi.
Last year too, the prime minister celebrated the Tamilian New Year Puthandu at his cabinet colleague Murugan’s house in Delhi.
Murugan, who is the Minister of State for information and broadcasting and fisheries in the Prime Minister Modi’s cabinet is looking to contest the next Lok Sabha elections from his home state.
Murugan, the former BJP Tamil Nadu president and currently a member of the Rajya Sabha, is likely to Contest from Nilgiri.
With the BJP, keeping its focus strongly down South, the move is expected to send a strong message to the voters. Under the PM Modi’s rule, the government has organised two major successful events- Kashi Tamil Sangaman and Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam.
These programs were to promote cultural exchange between areas like Gujarat and Kashi with the rich culture and heritage of Tamil Nadu.
PM Modi invoked the concept of “Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat” while referencing to the newly installed Sengol in the new Parliament building. Apart from this, the promotion of Sanskrit and Tamil languages by the centre, including in the new education policy, has been one of its noted achievements.
PM’s ‘Sabka Sath’ Mantra
Recently, several opposition parties have been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his scheduled participation in the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony on January 22.
The opposition leaders questioned why the PM was participating in the consecration and accused him of promoting the Hindutva agenda in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
But there has always been a reach out by the Prime Minister towards various strata of society especially different communities, especially in the last few months.
Just a few days back, a Muslim delegation met Prime Minister Modi at his official residence where Modi handed over a ‘chadar’ which was to be placed in reverence at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah.
In December, Modi hosted a Christian delegation at his residence on the occasion of Christmas and the New Year.
The deep-rooted connection that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has with the Sikh community has been witnessed over the last decade ever since his government has been in power.
Right from the opening up of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor to reducing the GST on langars at Gurudwaras, the prime minister has been active in reaching out to the Sikh community. He also participated in the programme to pay homage to the courage and martyrdom of the sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Sikh ‘Guru’. In 2022, the Modi government announced that this day would be celebrated each day as ‘Veer Baal Diwas.’
In June last year, when Prime Minister Modi travelled to Egypt, his visit to the historic Imam al-Hakim bi Amr Allah Mosque in Cairo, Egypt carried a special meaning for the community. This mosque has been restored with the help of India’s Dawoodi Bohra community. While referring to them as family members during that visit, Modi was able to reminisce about his deep, rooted personal connection, even when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.
In April last year, under PM Modi, the government organised the first of its kind “global Buddhist summit” which saw the participation of monks, scholars, and heads of Buddhist institutions from close to 30 countries. Highlighting the contribution of Lord Buddha in modern times, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated how his teachings could solve the most contemporary and contentious issues.
The government, in the year 2014-2015 under the Ministry of Tourism, launched PRASAD or ‘Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive’ scheme to focus on developing and identifying pilgrimage sites across India to enrich the religious tourism experience.
While the Ram Mandir politics has certainly taken centre stage with the opposite parties locked in a bit battle of words, the ruling BJP and its ideological partners, VHP and RSS have maintained that the topmost priority for the government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been that of Sabka, Vishwas and Sabka Vikas, and that too with a proven track record.
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