New Delhi: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh is currently on the wrong side of misinformation about its budget allocation for celebrating ‘Deepotsava’ in Ayodhya, with not just social media but also traditional media misreporting the number.
Reports by many media outlets said the state government allocated Rs 133 crore for Diwali celebrations in Ayodhya. According to a report in The Times of India, the UP government set aside the aforementioned amount to light 5.5 lakh earthen lamps during ‘Deepotsav’ in Ayodhya on 26 October. The report added that the decision was taken in a cabinet meeting headed by the chief minister.
The Indian Express also reported the same figure for the ‘Deepotsava’ in a report with the headline, “Ayodhya Deepotsava gets ‘state fair’ status with 133 crore budget”. The report also mentioned that there will be an audit of the entire event, including the tableaux, to stop the misuse of state funds.
These reports found widespread echo on social media, with several users quoting the same figure.
Govt has crores of money to light up diyas which could be easily lit up for free, Govt has money to entertain #EUMPsInKashmir
Govt has crores to spent on exotic (non veg) food in the temple vicinity.
But no money n time to bail out #PMCBankCrisis victimshttps://t.co/ADK4XKf1lv
— RiA D'Souza (@RiaRevealed) October 31, 2019
On Twitter, journalist and author Rahul Pandita slammed the allocation, sharing an image of a girl trying to collect oil from the lamps used in Ayodhya celebrations.
20,000 litre oil used to light up 500,000 earthen lamps in Ayodhya. Total cost: 133 crores. Here a poor girl trying to collect a little oil from these diyas to take home. Look at the fear in her eyes. Is this our idea of Ram Rajya? pic.twitter.com/5ysbGDTjwS
— Rahul Pandita (@rahulpandita) October 29, 2019
The mistake
On 22 October, just a day ahead of the reports carried by these leading media outlets, the Yogi Adityanath government had issued a press release about the decisions taken by the state cabinet in the reported meeting chaired by the CM.
In its statement, the government said the estimated cost of the celebration in Ayodhya would be around Rs 132.7 lakh and the expenses would be taken care of by the administration depending on the availability of funds.
As seen, the figure was in ‘lakh’ but it ended up being widely misreported to be in ‘crore’.
The celebrations in Ayodhya went ahead as planned, with the government securing a Guinness World Record for the “largest display of oil lamps”, said an India Today report.
In collaboration with SM Hoax Slayer.
I don’t know how much it means for others but on a positive side it generated employment for people who worked for about 3-4 weeks. Nothing much but better than doing nothing.
1. Created employment.
2. Created World Record.
3. Revenue.
4. PR generation.
5. People came to see it.
After slaming Congress for minority appeasement, the BJP government is now appeasing majority. Irrespective of the amount government has no business to be in the business of promoting religion irrespective of the religion
The figure reported was totally false. Even if they had distributed free oil around Ayodhya these people would have still collected the left over oil. What about the poor who benefitted due to sale of Diyas. They were desperately waiting for this event to sell their products.
Think about the positive side of the event too.
The figure may change but was it necessary for the government to spend so much money in a secular republic country, or will the government do for every festival, this question also need to be attended, would think print too is bakthis and have to silence critics is that so, if your intentions are good and larger than what I would imagine then you need to make fair to all religion the nation has born nationalities.
Ma’am what about money spent on Iftar parties..
India is for dharmic religion, middle East based cult can leave this country. Secularism means just non sectarian.