NEW DELHI: The showering of rose petals by top Uttar Pradesh (UP) officials from helicopters on pilgrims during the ongoing holy month of Shrawan has given rise to a controversy. The practice is being questioned and criticised by people belonging to different walks of life.
About five crore people undertake the 130-km ‘kanwar yatra’ every year. They carry holy water from the Ganges at Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Ghaziabad and other places in UP and Delhi.
After becoming UP chief minister for the first time in 2017, Yogi Adityanath ordered officials in 2018 to sprinkle flowers on ‘kanwariyas’ from helicopters. His order was followed by top IAS and IPS officers of UP in letter and spirit.
The practice continues as it entered its fifth year.
On the second Monday (July 25) of the month of Shrawan, Meerut SSP Rohit Singh and DM Deepak Meena showered flower petals on kanwariyas from a chopper.
Adityanath too undertook an aerial survey to oversee the arrangements made for the kanwar yatra. He tweeted, “Necessary guidelines have been given to the officials so that there is no inconvenience to devotees and common people.”
In fact, at some places, police personnel were seen giving foot massage and applying balm to the feet of pilgrims who were tired and got blisters while walking long distances.
However, the UP government’s initiatives have attracted criticism.
Congress social media and digital platforms chairperson Supriya Shrinate wanted to know the source of funds for the showering of petals. “Just a quick question: Who is paying for the pilot, chopper and the flowers?” she asked.
Former IPS officer R K Vij asked, “Is this really the job of government officers?”
Senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan registered a strong protest over the UP government’s largesse to the Hindu pilgrims. “Incredible! UP govt encourages kanwarias to occupy roads; makes food and staying arrangements for them; while they play blaring music on loudspeakers through residential colonies at night; while loudspeakers are removed from mosques and people are arrested for namaz on streets/malls!” he said.
Though Congress MLA from Pharenda Maharajganj in UP and UPCC vice-president Virendra Chaudhary liked the initiative, he had another concern. “Good thing but I wish there was rain of flowers on job seekers too,” he said.
National coordinator of All India Mahila Congress Sadaf Jafar demanded that the UP government show the same concern in other spheres of life. “It is okay to rain flowers but I urge the Uttar Pradesh government to also shower employment, education, health and security,” she said.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Seva Dal said, “There are two Indias: One spends taxpayers’ money on flower showering for appeasement of majority and other surpasses Nigeria in number of poor and they keep on struggling to fill their stomach.”
One T H Houghton had an interesting comment to make. He said, “Rare video of IAS and IPS doing IFS: Indian Floral Service.”
Showering of petals defended
However, there were certain people who justified the UP government’s act of showering rose petals on kanwariyas.
JNU professor and author Anand Ranganathan said, “Money collected by the government through exclusive control of 113,500 Hindu temples: upwards of 7,200 crore. Cost of hiring a helicopter for a day to shower petals on kanwariyas: 2 lakh. Let the government return to Hindu temples 7,200 cr and the Hindus will return to the government 2 lakh. Gladly.”
Delhi BJP spokesperson Ajay Sehrawat said, “You could see the cost of showering flowers on Hindu kanwariyas but what about the provision of salary to maulvis which Congress made? Get out of your mindset of Hindu hatred at least once.”
Right-winger Rishi Bagree replied to Shrinate and said, “Same people who paid for lavish iftar parties hosted during UPA time - Indian Public.”
