Lakhs of devotees thronged the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati on Sunday at Allahabad for a holy dip on the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivaratri, bringing the Maha Kumbh to a close.
Sadhus of various akhadas of the Vaishnava sect reached Ramkund in a royal procession carrying golden idols of deities, traditional flags and spears with silver rods.
By any standards, the crowd was far bigger than what the festival has witnessed ever since it began on January 3.
A total of about seven crore Hindus are expected to converge in Allahabad.
The woman, Trikal Bhavanta, the Pari Akhara head, who entered into a samadhi on Tuesday for not getting facilities at par with male seers in the Mela, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of disrupting peace.
This statue, which is 28-foot tall including the pedestal, was made using the ancient lost-wax technique of metal casting that was used for making the famed Chola bronzes, sources said.
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The exhibition of artefacts -- in physical and digital formats -- will be done on the same floor level where the leaders' meetings will take place, and they will walk through this 'cultural corridor' while moving into and out of the summit room, official sources said.
Reuters's Indian Photojournalists Adnan Abidi, Amit Dave, Danish Siddiqui and Sanna Irshad Mattoo were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography at Columbia University in Manhattan, October 20, 2022.
"The Central government thought that the COVID-19 pandemic has ended and they were also applauded by the World Economic Forum. However, they didn't know that there would come a stage when there would be no testing and there would be no oxygen," said the senior Congress leader.
Made of silver with a coat of gold, the historical sceptre will be installed near the chair of the Lok Sabha Speaker on May 28, the same day the new Parliament building will be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Once Ram temple is built it will become a 'ghoshit (declared) Hindu Rashtra', a VHP leader told the gathering.
Traditionally the biggest of all the sacred bathing days in the 50-day long Mela, Mauni Amavasya this time holds greater significance as it falls on a Monday and that too during the Kumbh - a rather rare combination on many accounts.
The Uttarakhand high court on Monday stayed the Chardham Yatra reversing a cabinet decision to open it partially for residents of three districts from July 1.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said 166 criminals were killed and 4,453 injured in encounters with the Uttar Pradesh police in the past five years, highlighting his government's zero-tolerance policy on crime.
Announcing this in Dehradun on Thursday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said conducting the yatra amid the raging pandemic is not possible.
Yadav had recently visited Haridwar where the Kumbh Mela is underway and met various religious leaders, including Akhara Parishad chairman Mahant Narendra Giri who had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier.
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Why did we go into nationwide lockdown when we were adding 100 cases a day and why are we not going into lockdown but allowing cricket stadiums, political rallies and Kumbh Melas when we are adding 40,000 cases a day? asks Aakar Patel.
To build one's political and ideological arguments on the dead bodies piling up outside our crematoriums is despicable and breaches the basic tenet of human civility, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Adityanath said the BJP government has done whatever the party promised in the run-up to the last assembly polls in 2017.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh executive head Bhaiyyaji Joshi has expressed confidence that the Ram temple will be constructed in Ayodhya by the time of next 'Kumbh'.
Rarely have we seen such intoxication over power, which ignores the cries of those dying, notes Jyoti Punwani.
He said Google failed before the epic Ramayana, which was written by sage Valmiki, and he asserted that the knowledge of the spiritual books was correct instead of what the search engine said.
Masks were not worn by a large proportion and social distancing appeared impossible in an event in which, according to the mela administration, over 17 lakh people had taken a dip in the river in the first few hours up to 10 am.
Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and the late Danish Siddiqui, who was killed last July while on assignment covering the war in Afghanistan, won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in India.
As the virus ravaged rural areas, the state BJP figured out it was impossible to underplay or escape its impact on its political plans.
If everyone had decent meaningful jobs, the rally maidans would be largely empty and, save for the Akhara babas and curious foreigners and the devout senior citizens, not very many would spare time for the Kumbh Mela, says Mahesh Vyas.
'This is necessary for protecting the Hindu religion'
Authorities continue to pass the buck and even blame pilgrims in what clearly appears to be a case of inept handling of the situation by the police and railway officials, reports Sharat Pradhan
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The Devasthanam Board was assigned the management of 51 temples of the state, including the four famous Himalayan shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
'Your family, your kith and kin are also under stress, some of your relatives will die, without getting appropriate treatment.'
Other strong men have stopped Modi and his hordes in states before, but none of them with a footprint or battle cry to shake up New Delhi, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The decision came a day after the Allahabad high court asked the Centre and the state government to file counter affidavits within a week on a petition challenging the decision to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat on Sunday again created a controversy with his remark over the amount of ration distributed during the COVID-19 lockdown: A family with two children got less ration and they would have got more if they had 20 children.
There was an environment of "indifference" towards the use of technology in governance before 2014 due to which the poor and the middle class suffered the most, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday. He asserted the current government has ensured last-mile delivery of services with the help of technology, including drones. Addressing a gathering after inaugurating India's biggest drone festival in Delhi, he said, "At a time when we are celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, it is my dream that everyone in India should have a smartphone in his or her hand, every farm should have a drone and every house should have prosperity." The enthusiasm being seen in India about drone technology is amazing and indicates possibilities of an emerging sector of employment generation, the prime minister said.
Some speakers also blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
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