Rain Drenches Dussehra Festivities In Delhi, Events Of PM Modi, Amit Shah Cancelled

Rain dampened Dussehra festivities at many places in the national capital on Thursday, drenching the effigies of Ravan and leading to the cancellation of events which were to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Prime Minister Modi was supposed to attend the ‘Raavan Dahan' organised by the Indraprastha Ramleela Committee, which was cancelled because of the sudden, heavy downpour, while Amit Shah was unable to attend an event in Pitampura due to the rain, officials said.

“The prime minister could not attend the celebrations due to the rain. The showers damaged the effigies, which were later set on fire in the presence of Union minister Harsh Malhotra, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva, MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely and others,” Suresh Bindal, president of the Indraprastha Ramleela Committee, said.

The ground where Rameela was held was flooded, he added. Due to heavy rainfall, Amit Shah could not attend the event organised by the Keshav Ramleela Committee on the DDA Ground at Netaji Subhash Place, Pitampura, the organisers said.

BJP national general secretary Arun Singh later attended the event as the chief guest for the effigy burning.

The president of the Keshav Ramleela Committee, Ashok Goyal Devaraha, said they would appeal to Shah to grace the stage and perform the effigy burning next year.

Rain lashed Delhi on Thursday, with parts of north, northwest, central and west Delhi receiving heavy downpour.

Till 5:30 pm, the weather-monitoring station at Pitampura recorded 17.5 mm of rain, the one at Ridge registered 15.4 mm, while the Mayur Vihar station recorded 9.5 mm of rain, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

A member of the Adarsh Ramleela Committee in Ashok Vihar said they struggled to protect the Ravan effigy due to the heavy downpour.

"We barely managed to cover it with plastic, but most of it still got drenched," he said, adding that efforts are being made to light up the effigy by pouring petrol and diesel on it, but it's not catching fire.

"This is God's work. Many Ramleela committees are coordinating to find a way to burn the effigies. It feels as if Indra Dev doesn't want Ravan to die by fire this year; he wants him to drown instead,” he said.

Anil Garg of Pitampura's Aryan Heritage Foundation said, "More than 10 per cent of the effigy was drenched as we covered the rest with plastic. The puja was delayed. There were also waterlogging issues. But everything happens because of God's will, and we just hope that the Dahan goes well and the effigy catches fire properly." Nitin Gupta, treasurer of the Hanumant Dharmik Ramleela Committee in east Delhi, said, "The rain came as a huge shock, delaying our preparations. A large part of the effigy got drenched, but we managed to salvage the rest by covering it with whatever plastic sheets we could find. Now we are trying to burn the effigy with petrol, diesel and other materials so that the Dahan goes on smoothly."  

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