Lok Sabha polls: Varanasi Mahants pick holes in Narendra Modi's poll planks

VARANASI: THE withdrawal of Har Har Modi slogan by the BJP to placate Vidya Mutt Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand may have put an end to the controversy, but the development plank of its PM candidate Narendra Modi does not find favour with most mahants and mutts here. "Modi’s development model is flawed and bereft of sensitivity," Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati of Vidya Mutt told ET. Saraswati is the heir apparent and principle disciple to the Mutt Shankaracharya.

"Over 150 temples, several of them many decades old, were destroyed in Ahmedabad to build roads by the Modi government. Is this the development he wants to bring to Varanasi?" asked the holyman. Giving out more examples, Saraswati said, "He has walled the Sabarmati to turn it into a manufactured canal and then sold the riverine land to builders and hoteliers. Will he do the same to the Ganga in Varanasi?"

Mahant Vivek Das of Kabir Mutt, which has a large following among Kurmi, Yadav and other backwards in the state, offered a different reason for opposing Modi. "We follow the teachings of Kabir Das that are secular in nature. And from what we have seen and read in the media about the BJP candidate, we can assure you that he does not follow Kabir’s wisdom."