Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Varanasi for his two day visit has inaugurated the first phase of Kashi Vishwanath Dham on Monday.
As the PM Modi’s cavalcade moved through the city, he met with chants and hymns by the locals who were gathered alongside the streets to get a glimpse of the Prime Minister. Some of locals even waved tricolours from their balconies and verandahs as the convoy carrying PM Modi went through a narrow street of the city.
Addressing a huge gathering at the time of inauguration of the first phase of Kashi Dham, the Prime Minister said that the temple area at Kashi Vishwanath Dham has been expanded to about give lakh square feet from the earlier 3,000 square feet. He said that the temple is the “symbol of Sanatan culture” of India.
“Invaders attacked this city, tried to destroy it. History is witness to Aurangzeb’s atrocities, his terror. He tried to change civilisation by the sword. He tried to crush culture with fanaticism,” he said.
“But the soil of this country is different from the rest of the world. Here if an (Mughal Emperor) Aurangzeb comes, a (Maratha warrior) Shivaji also rises. If a Salar Masud marches ahead, warriors like Raja Suhaldev make him realise the power of our unity,” said the Prime Minister in his address.
After arriving in his parliamentary constituency – Varanasi, PM Modi first offered prayers at the Kaal Bhairav temple.
“I am overwhelmed to reach Kashi. After some time, we will all witness the launch of the Kashi Vishwanath Dham project. Before this, I had darshan of Kaal Bhairav ji, Kotwal of Kashi,” PM tweeted in Hindi.
After his address during the inauguration, PM modi also attended the conclave of BJP chief ministers at the Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) campus.
During the passing of PM Modi’s convoy through a street in Varanasi, a man had offered him a pink-shaded ‘pagdi’ near the Kal Bhairav temple. But the SPG personnel and Local police pushed the man away. However, PM modi then waved at the man wearing a saffron robe to call him from inside the car, the man then offered the Prime Minister a “pitambari” (saffron ‘angvastra’) which he accepted with folded hands and smile.
