Ayodhya: Samajwadi Party leader and Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad said on Wednesday that he was not invited to the Deepotsav in Ayodhya, which he had attended earlier.
He protested at the ‘communalisation’ of Indian festivals by the ruling BJP over that incident and raised concerns about its potential segregating effects.
Speaking to the people of Ayodhya on the occasion, I wish them a Happy Diwali. I feel privileged to have been elected from here,” said Prasad. “However, the BJP is politicizing our festivals only, which must be a festival of unity and brotherhood. For the last five years, as the MLA for Ayodhya, I have never been given an invitation or a pass for Deepotsav. He pointed out that festivals are not restricted to one community or party but for everyone”, he said. He said it was his intention to attend the festival, and he would go to Ayodhya even if there was no invitation for the purpose.
Faizabad is Prasad’s parliamentary seat, and Ayodhya is a sacred place for Hindu pilgrimage, where the newly built Ram Temple is located. The construction of the temple began after the ruling of the Supreme Court in 2019 that claimed the land from the Hindus and provided another piece of land for the Muslims to build a mosque for praying. The Ram Temple movement, spearheaded mainly by the BJP in the 1980s, has been emblematic of a power struggle in India.
Such comments come in the dangerous wake of Prasad, who just defeated BJP’s Lallu Singh in the June Lok Sabha polls, a significant setback on the part of the BJP in this sensitive region. Conducted by the Uttar Pradesh government every year, Deepotsav rivals the festival of Diwali, which lights millions of lamps on the banks of the Saryu River.
The UP government seems to be gearing up to make a new world record this year. They are planning to light up more than 2.8 million diyas. The event highlights that Ayodhya is emerging as a key destination in cultural tourism; Deepotsav has become larger than life and symbolizes Hindu culture and heritage under the BJP state government’s direction.
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