A monk whom Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhamicalls his “guru” said on Saturday that the country was producing people like Nirav Modi rather than Bhagat Singh.

“We can hear these days that a race is going on to open big, air-conditioned schools. But they cannot produce what we need, for example, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandrashekhar Azad,” Jagatguru Swami Rajrajeshwar said at a preaching session at his Haridwar ashram.

“What is the country producing these days? The country is producing Nirav Modi,” he added.

Nirav Modi, a diamantaire, his uncle Mehul Choksiand industrialist Vijay Mallya are accused of fleeing the country after defrauding banks.

Opposition parties have accused the Modi government of protecting these businessmen.

The BJP is touchy about the subject.

A party MLA filed a defamation complaint against Rahul Gandhi for linking people with the “Modi” surname to “thieves” — Rahul had named Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Narendra Modi — leading to the Congress leader’s conviction and disqualification as MP.

Swami Rajrajeshwar’s remark assumes significance because the BJP has always banked on sadhus during elections, a point emphasised by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday.

“We have always got the blessings of the saints. We want them to support us once again in the Karnataka elections in the interest of the country’s development,” Adityanath told an Assembly election rally in Raichur, Karnataka.

Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandrashekhar Azad are martyrs of the freedom struggle. Bhagat Singh, a socialist revolutionary, was known for a fiercely secular approach to politics.