India lit up in the fight for COVID-19

Following a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “challenge the darkness spread by the coronavirus crisis”, which has crossed 3,500 cases nationwide, millions of Indians came out to light the traditional lamps and candles.

As the clock struck 9 pm tens of thousands of diyas, a traditional lamp usually seen during Diwali and other festive occasions, were lit as people wearing face masks burst firecrackers, blew conches (horns) and shouted and cheered in response to the Prime Minister’s call.

Spiritual slogans and chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” were heard as well.

Although the Prime Minister had requested diyas be lit for nine minutes from 9 pm, people kept up the chanting and cheering for nearly 30 minutes, with the lamps left burning for much longer. People also kept lights switched off in their homes for much longer than the Prime Minister had asked.

At around 9.30 pm, Prime Minister Modi tweeted a photo of him lighting a lamp at his official residence in Delhi. Wearing a blue kurta, the Prime Minister also posted a short Sanskrit poem that, roughly translated, read: “Salutations to the light of the lamp which brings auspiciousness, health and prosperity (and) which destroys inimical feelings; Salutations to the light of the lamp”.

In Gujarat, the Prime Minister’s mother, 93-year-old Hiraben also joined in, lighting an earthen lamp after turning off all the lights in her home.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and their respective families also lit lamps outside their homes, as did Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and BJP chief JP Nadda.

The chief ministers of several states, including Tamil Nadu (E Palaniswami) Uttar Pradesh (Yogi Adityanath), Bihar (Nitish Kumar), Uttarakhand (Trivendra Singh Rawat) and Telangana (K Chandrashekar Rao), also lit diyas, as did Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and former Andhra Chief Minister N Chandrababu.