Forces that opposed Somnath temple reconstruction still active: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asserted that the attacks on the Somnath Temple in Gujarat were not only about economic loot as, if that were the case, the attackers would have stopped after the first major plunder.

Addressing a gathering on the last day of the four-day Somnath Swabhiman Parv, Modi said, “If the attacks on Somnath were only for economic loot, they would have stopped after the first major plunder a thousand years ago. But that did not happen.”

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He said that after independence, efforts were made to “whitewash” foreign attacks and present them as routine acts of plunder. “The temple was attacked again and again, its idols were broken, its form was altered repeatedly, and yet we were taught that it was only about loot.”

He alleged that the “contractors of appeasement” raised objections when the temple was being reconstructed in 1951.

“The contractors of appeasement bowed down before radical thinking. When India was freed from the shackles of slavery, when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took the oath for the reconstruction of Somnath, attempts were also made to stop him. In 1951, objections were also raised when Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, came there,” he said in a veiled attack on former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

PM Modi Marks Somnath Swabhiman Parv Celebrating India’s Heritage of Resilience and Renewal

“Unfortunately, even today, forces remain active in the country that opposed Somnath’s reconstruction,” Modi added.

The Prime Minister said that the history of Somnath is not one of destruction and defeat but of victory and reconstruction.

“A thousand years ago, those tyrants thought they had conquered us, but even today, a thousand years later, the flag fluttering atop the Somnath Mahadev temple is calling out to the entire creation about what the power of Hindustan is, what its might is,” he remarked.

The PM said that the Somnath Swabhiman Parv, held to mark 1,000 years since the first invasion of the Somnath temple in 1026 by  Mahmud of Ghazni, is a commemoration of continuity.

“This festival is not merely a remembrance of the destruction that occurred a thousand years ago. It is a celebration of a thousand-year journey, and of India’s existence and pride,” he added.