Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday responded sharply to the Opposition’s criticism of his presence at a Ganesh Chaturthi puja at Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud’s Delhi residence last week.

The Prime Minister equated the Opposition to the British, “who were not in favour of Ganesh Utsav during their stay in India”.

Modi said at a meeting here: “The British, who worked on the policy of divide and rule, were irked by the Ganesh Utsav organised by Lokmanya Tilak. Today, people are also trying to divide and break Indian society and are angry over Ganesh Utsav. People who are hungry for power have an issue with Ganesh Utsav.

“The people in the Congress and its eco-system are agitated because I attended Ganesh Pujan. In Karnataka, where they are in power, they committed an even bigger sin. They put Lord Ganesh’s idol behind bars. The entire nation is disturbed because of those pictures. We cannot let those hateful elements move forward. We have a lot to achieve yet,” the Prime Minister said.

Modi was referring to the incident where Bengaluru police momentarily seized a Ganesh idol amid protests and later put it inside a police van designated for detaining protesters. However, the idol was quickly shifted to a police SUV.

Modi tried to strike a chord with the masses by pointing to how Bal Gangadhar Tilak organised Ganesh Puja to unite Indians against the British. In 1893, Tilak turned Ganesh festivals into mass community events, where political activism and intellectual discourse thrived too. “Ganesh Utsav has become a symbol of unity and it’s above discrimination and casteism,” Modi said.

The PM’s visit to the CJI’s residence for Ganesh puja triggered criticism from lawyers’ bodies, activists and Opposition members who had said that the meeting raised questions about judicial independence.

The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), headed by civil liberties activist and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, said the meeting had set “an unwarranted precedent”.

This perception undermines the perception of judicial independence and raises critical questions about the separation of powers and the impartiality of the judiciary, the CJAR had commented.

The CJAR also urged judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts to be mindful of the potential for such events to set a trend across states, where Chief Justices may meet chief ministers and other political figures in informal settings, shattering people’s faith in the judiciary.

Modi on Tuesday also raised the issue of how the country was celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day, which “spoke of the integrity of the country”. Modi was here to launch the Subhadra Scheme, the Odisha government’s flagship programme for women. Under the scheme, ₹50,000 will be credited to the accounts of nearly a crore women in five years. Every year, a woman will get ₹10,000 in two instalments of ₹5,000 each. Around 25 lakh women on Tuesday received ₹5,000 in their accounts through direct-benefit transfer.

The Prime Minister said that the BJP had fulfilled the promises that it had made during the election campaigns in Odisha. “Promises that we made before the elections are being fulfilled. As promised, we opened the Ratna Bhandar (treasure trove) of Puri
Shree Jagannath Temple after coming to power.”