Rajnath Singh inaugurates ‘celebration of India’s cultural heritage’ at Somnath, hits out at Rahul for march to unite a ‘strongly united’ India

Organised by the Central government and the Gujarat government, the STM is a 10-day programme to facilitate the visit of people from Saurashtra who migrated to Tamil Nadu (TN) back to their homeland. The first train with around 300 people of TN residents arrived at Veraval junction in Gir Somnath district where visitors were taken to the Somnath temple for the inaugural ceremony addressed by Singh, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Telangana Governor Tamilisai Sounder Rajan.

Hailing the STM as an example of India’s syncretic culture, Singh said, “The Prime Minister of our country, honourable (Narendra) Modi ji gave the best mantra of Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat. To translate that mantra into a reality, Saurashtra’s those people who had created Saurashtra, meaning a beautiful region centuries ago, are coming back to their land… You must have heard this: ‘You can take an Indian out of India but you can’t take India out of an Indian’ — this fully applies to Saurashtrians.”

Mandaviya claimed that to escape persecution by foreign invaders who repeatedly vadalised Somnath temple and plundered its wealth from 1024 AD, people of Saurashtra sailed southwards and eventually settled in TN.

Singh, who spoke in Hindi with Gujarat cadre IAS officer Arun Mahesh Babu acting as his Tamil interpreter, also underlined India’s tradition of giving shelter to those escaping persecution and said Saurashtra people finding a place in TN was also an example of it.

“Sometimes I wonder as to how Saurashtrians managed to lead their lives in Tamil Nadu with full pride and without much difficulty. Despite being refugees, they got full respect,” said Singh adding, India is the only country in the world where all the 72 sects of Muslim live and that India is also the country which offered shelters to Persians who were fleeing persecution in their country.

This, the Defence Minister said, underlines India’s belief in the philosophy of treating the entire world as a family. “This was the very spirit which inspired residents of Tamil Nadu to accept, without any disinclination, Saurashtratrians as their own and helped the Saurashtrian community assimilate with Tamil brothers and sisters like waters of India’s western sea mixes with those of the eastern sea.

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi for his Bharat Jodo Yatra (unite India march), Singh said, “These days, it has become fashionable to unite an already united, unbreakable and unique India. Those who can’t do anything else are going out to unite India. However, India is telling them that I am already united and haven’t broken up yet. But they would not listen and would insist that they would take a break only after uniting India.”

Patel said that STM will become a chapter of pride in India’s history and credited the PM for coming up with the idea. “At the end of this Sangamam, brothers and sisters living in Madurai or Salem will feel that Gujarat and Saurashtra is theirs,” said the CM.