bhopal

Updated: Sep 20, 2016 13:27 IST

Shankaracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati of Dwarka and Sharda Peeth said on Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi should stop “roaming here and there” and prepare people of the country for a war (with Pakistan).

The statements came a day after a terror attack on an army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir killed 18 soldiers. Home minister Rajnath Singh pointed a finger at Pakistan for its “continued and direct support” to terror groups but Pakistan dismissed the accusation.

The Shankaracharya said Modi was repeating the same mistake that former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru made in 1962. Nehru’s mistake of trusting China was the main reason for the country’s humiliating defeat in the war.

“During the war with China, people gave so much money on their own to the government. Tell me, if the government needs money for a war right now, how many people will be in a position to shell out...” he said.

He said soldiers were dying on a regular basis, and what could they do when they were repeatedly told to restrain themselves if they are pelted with stones or attacked.

“Modi was roaming here and there in the world, but people here were suffering -- be it farmers who were committing suicides or traders and common people who were struggling with price hike,” he said.

The Shankaracharya also raised questions over Modi’s two years as a PM.

“What has he (Modi) done ? Gau hatya (cow slaughter) has not been stopped. Ganga river still flows unclean. Corruption continues despite his saying ‘Na Khawoonga , na khaney doonga (won’t allow corruption )’. I am an optimistic person. But he is repeating the mistakes of Congress and Nehru.”

It is not the first time Shankaracharya criticised Modi. In May, he had questioned the Prime Minister’s focus on building toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan at a time the country was facing drought.

Instead of focusing on building toilets, Shankaracharya has said, the Modi government should first ensure people have drinking water.

In December last, he questioned Modi for terming “India as a country of Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi” during his visit to the United Kingdom, stressing why the PM can’t say India was the land of Rama-Krishna at international forums.

Ayodhya temple

Swaroopanand Saraswati said political parties cannot build Ram temple at Ayodhya in election-bound Uttar Pradesh. It is the saints and religious leaders who can build the temple once the court allows, not the BJP or the Congress, he said.

Sudarshan temple in Shirdi

The Shankaracharya announced that a massive Sudarshan Temple would be constructed in Shirdi “to counter the cult of Sai” Baba.

He said the temple would be dedicated to Lord Vishnu and would have a Sudarshan chakra at its top. In October last year, he released a controversial poster showing Lord Hanuman chasing away Sai Baba. He had said Hindu sanatan dharma was being polluted by Sai Baba, adding: “in Hinduism when we want to chase away any ghost, we invoke Lord Hanuman”.

‘Harassed at airport’

Swaroopanand Saraswati alleged staff at the Delhi airport harassed him and his attendants by not allowing him to move through the VIP lounge.

“It had never happened with me before. We are religious people. There is no record against us that we have ever done anything. I cannot use any other wheelchair as they are smaller. Persons accompanying me were asked to come through a different gate. When we asked home minister Rajnath Singh, he said he had no idea about it..”