‘Poverty amid divinity’: Day after UP ‘diya’ record, Akhilesh post shows flip side
The Samajwadi leader and former chief minister shared a video of poor children taking oil from the earthen lamps a day after 22 lakh 'diyas' were lit in Ayodhya
In a moving social media post, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav shared a video on Sunday (November 12) and expressed his hope that “every house of the poor gets illuminated”. The video showed some children taking out oil from lamps at a ghat and filling it in utensils a day after 22 lakh 'diyas' illuminated the banks of the Saryu River in Ayodhya.
“Poverty amid divinity... where poverty forces one to take oil from lamps, the light of celebration becomes dim. Our only wish is that there should also be such a festival in which not only ghats but also every house of the poor gets illuminated,” the former chief minister wrote on X.
In a record feat, more than 22 lakh earthen lamps were lit on the banks of the Saryu River in Ayodhya on the seventh edition of the Deepotsav.
The 22.23 lakh earthen lamps – 6.47 lakh more than last year – were lit by 25,000 volunteers at the 51 ghats of Ram Ki Paidi along the river.
Ayodhya reverberated with chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ after the representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records counted the lamps using drones and registered it as a world record.
Upon receiving a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath extended warm greetings to the entire Ayodhya and its residents.
In 2017, when the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh, 1.71 lakh lamps were lit in Ayodhya and Deepotsav has since become a major event in the state.
In 2018, 3.01 lakh lamps were lit, 4.04 lakh in 2019, 6.06 lakh in 2020, 9.41 lakh in 2021 and 15.76 15.76 lakh in 2022.
On Sunday (November 12), Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati in a post on X greeted the public on Diwali. “Hearty congratulations to all Indian brothers and sisters and their families living in the country and across the world on the occasion of Deepavali as well as Bhaiya Dooj, and many best wishes to all for a happy and prosperous life,” she wrote.
(With agency inputs)
