Seeing the grandeur of Dev Deepawali when lakhs of diyas were lighted at the 84-odd ghats of Varanasi on the auspicious occasion of Dev Deepawali on Monday evening, an emotionally charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised the people that the country would prosper as despite all the hurdles and obstructions the river Ganga was flowing continuously.

Wishing all the people for the festival, he said that though due to the novel coronavirus pandemic he could not visit his parliamentary constituency for long, there were rarely any moments when he did not think about the people and how everyone could get food and proper treatment.

After offering prayer at Kashi Vishwanath temple, Modi inspected the progress of his dream project, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor. Later, he took a cruiser to reach Rajghat where he lit the lamp to mark the inauguration of Dev Deepawali festival. It was the first time that Modi was taking part in any such big programme at this ghat located in the north part of the city because earlier, most of the time he visited either Dashaswamedh or Assi ghat.

Highlighting the glorious history of this city, Modi said that Kashi always showed direction to the people and narrated the story how the festival of Dev Deepawali was started by Adi Shankaracharya at Panchganga Ghat and later on, after several centuries it was revived by Rani Ahilyabai Holkar, who also built the Kashi Vishwanath Temple but in the course of time, its link with the river Ganga was broken.

“We have tried to link the temple premises with the river,” the prime minister said, adding that when the project was launched, many had opposed.

“But we are moving ahead with our plan as the construction work of Ram temple is going on in Ayodhya. Now Ayodhya-Prayagraj-Kashi areas in the state are being developed as a major tourist site,” he said.

Earlier, the prime minister launched the Pawan Path website of the Tourism department.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed Modi and praised his efforts for bringing back the idol of Goddess Annapurna which was stolen in 1913. He also greeted the Sikhs on the auspicious occasion of  Prakash Utsav of Guru Nanak Dev. 

Modi had a glance of the beauty of Dev Deepawali from the cruiser and saw the programmes being held at several ghats. He also watched the Odissi dance performance at Rajghat.

After this, Modi reached Sarnath to watch the light & sound show inaugurated by him recently.