Last week in Chennai, Narendra Modi had derided the central government for ordering an excavation at a ruined palace in Unnao. (AP)
After attacking the government for allegedly ordering a treasure hunt for buried gold in Uttar Pradesh on the basis of a sadhu's dream,
Narendra Modi is trying to propitiate the followers of the sage, Shobhan Sarkar.
He tweeted yesterday that lakhs of Indians have faith in Yogi Swami Shobhan Sarkar. In the evening, a senior BJP leader in the state, Satish Mahana, met the seer to convey that Mr Modi meant no disrespect to him. The swami allegedly accepted the clarification and declared the chapter closed.
The BJP's exercise in appeasement comes after Shobhan Sarkar's aide wrote to Mr Modi, accusing him of violating "the nobility of a saint."
The letter asks, "If you were PM and this information of buried gold had been offered to you, would you have ordered the excavation, or would you have mocked the information?"
Mr Modi, who is the BJP's choice for prime minister, last week derided the central government for ordering an excavation at a ruined palace in Unnao. "The whole world is making fun of us. The government is digging for 1000 tonnes of gold based on some information. The Delhi government has money in Switzerland. It's worth more than 1,000 tonnes of gold. We need to bring that money back," he had said referring to the excavation. (
Don't need to dig for gold if we get black money back: Narendra Modi)
The Archeological Survey of India or ASI has denied reports that Shobhan Sarkar's vision inspired the large excavation now underway.
"Archaeology is a science, we don't base it on someone's dream," the agency's Director, Syed Jamal Hasan, told NDTV. "We have been restoring various places on the Ganges basin, this is routine. We expect to find some historical remains, pots and something of historical significance, no question of finding tonnes of gold," he added.