Dehradun, Oct 21: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused previous governments of leaving centres of faith across the country in a state of neglect and said these places are now being restored to their lost glory.
The prime minister said this addressing a gathering in Uttarakhand’s Mana village on the India-China border, after offering prayers at the famous Kedarnath and Badrinath temples.
PM Modi during the day laid the foundation stone of road and ropeway projects worth Rs 3,400 crore. These included ropeway projects between Govindghat-Hemkund Sahib and Gaurikund-Kedarnath.
Citing examples of the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Ujjain and Ayodhya, where major reconstruction works have been carried out in recent years, Modi attributed the “years of neglect” to a “slave mentality”.
“Slave mentality grips the minds of some people so strongly that they react even to development as if it is a crime,” he said.
Such people never get tired of praising the centres of faith in other countries but they look down upon their own country’s centres of faith, Modi said.
“Pride in our own legacy and every possible effort for development are the foundations of a 21st century India,” the prime minister added.
Modi said the neglect of the centres of faith for decades by previous governments reflected a disregard for crores of people.
“Our centres of faith are not just structures, they are symbols of our cultural legacy which is thousands of years old. They are our life breath,” Modi said.
He said from the temple of Goddess Kali in Gujarat’s Pavagadh to the corridor of Goddess Vindhyachal, India is calling for its cultural uplift.
Reconstruction work carried out in Kedarnath in recent years is bringing unprecedented number of pilgrims to the Himalayan temple, he said.
“Earlier a maximum of four to five lakh people visited Kedarnath in one season but I am told that this year 45 lakh people have visited the temple, breaking all past records,” Modi said.
“Development projects at the Himalayan centres of faith not only make journey to the temples easier for pilgrims but also generate job opportunities for locals and boost the local economy,” he added.
He appealed to people going on pilgrimages or to the border areas for tourism to spend five per cent of their budget on buying local products, saying the small step could help boost the local economy in a big way.
Modi said a ropeway to the Hemkund Sahib gurdwara will be celebrated by followers of the Sikh faith not only in the country but also in countries like the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada.
Modi said Mana is called the last Indian village because of its location but for him every border village in the country is the first village from where the doors of prosperity will open.
He said it is not that he started talking about Mana after becoming the prime minister.
Modi said he had convened a meeting of Uttarakhand BJP’s working committee at Mana 25 years ago, much to the displeasure of party workers who were reluctant to traverse the distance in hilly terrain.
“I told them that the day you understand the significance of Mana, people will give the BJP a permanent place in their hearts. Your blessings have sent the BJP to power for the second time in a row,” he said.
The prime minister said people in the hills are tough and hard working.
But that does not mean they should be deprived of development, he said.
Denying them development would be an injustice to their capacity for leading a hard life, he said.
Modi said the government is now working on delivering goods to the hills through drones.
Drones will soon deliver fresh vegetables grown in the hills to big cities, which will increase the income of local people, the prime minister said.
PM Modi said to overcome the problem of connectivity, his party’s double-engine government is working on rail, road and air connectivity.
The dream of the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail in Uttarakhand will be realised soon, he added.
This was Modi’s sixth visit to Kedarnath and second to Badrinath as prime minister.
After performing a “puja” at the Kedarnath temple in Rudraprayag district, the prime minister arrived at the Badrinath temple in Chamoli in a helicopter.
The prime minister performed the “puja” at the temples wearing a white traditional attire of the hill people with a swastika embroidered on it.
Modi also visited the Samadhi Sthal of Adi Guru Shankaracharya at Kedarnath and spent some time there.
During his two-day tour of the state, Modi will inspect various ongoing development projects and lay foundation stones for some new ones. (PTI)
