Fly on the Wall
Why Diwali is different in Lutyens' Delhi
The Diwali festival is celebrated in world Capitals including the White House in the USA for almost two decades. The Prime Ministers of UK, Australia, Canada and other countries also host guests at their official residences to celebrate Diwali. The Hindu festivals are celebrated with fervour across many western countries. Lately, this culture has started even in several Muslim countries where Diwali parties are held. This pattern started in the late 1990s in the US and the UK particularly after the arrival of PM Atal Behari Vajpayee on the scene. Vajpayee visited the US and held rallies of people of Indian origins and wooed them and took several initiatives to resolve their issues. Vajpayee was affable and jovial too and connected instantly with the people and was taken in high esteem. Diwali was a special festival for him when hundreds lined up to share the spirit of the festival with him in the PMO. He held regular parties with staff on Diwali day and even with other sections. His successor Dr Manmohan Singh who also held the office for ten years, believed in a quieter Diwali. It's a different matter that some Prime Ministers hold Iftar parties regularly. Even a few of the Presidents held Iftar parties at Rashtrapati Bhawan. But times have changed and Diwali or Iftar parties are almost a history. Of course, some of the ministers celebrate festivals they wish to at their official residences.
Modi wrote his own
script
The Diwali Festival, most revered for the Hindus across the world, has never been the same in the Lutyens' Delhi after the advent of Modi as Prime Minister in 2014. He wrote his own script even in celebrating the Diwali festival instead of making it a mega event after creating history by winning a majority on his own in three decades by any party. He quietly moved out of the Capital on the day to be with soldiers on the borders. He began a new tradition and started celebrating Diwali with security forces in Siachen in 2014. “From the icy heights of the Siachen Glacier & with the brave Jawans & Officers of the Armed Forces, I wish all of you a Happy Diwali,” he had tweeted at the time. Next year, he chose to visit three memorials in Punjab to honour the successes of the Indian Army in the 1965 war.
In 2016, his Diwali destination was Himachal Pradesh to be with soldiers near the China border. He interacted with men from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the Dogra Scouts and the Army at Sumdoh; and made an unplanned stop at a village, Chango. In 2017, Modi visited the Gurez sector in North Kashmir and chose to spend Diwali in Uttarakhand’s Harsil and the iconic Kedarnath Dham. It was the same story in subsequent years when he celebrated Diwali with soldiers in one state after the other. In 2022, he was with soldiers in Kargil and paid tribute to the Army personnel who lost their lives in the 1999 Kargil war and in Lepcha in Himachal Pradesh next year.
Perhaps, 2024 was different in the sense as he celebrated Diwali in the PMO itself on January 22, 2024 sharing photos on X with the caption "Ram Jyoti"; the lighting of diyas is meant to recreate how Ram's subjects welcomed his return after his 14-year exile. He lit the Diyas in the evening at his official residence to celebrate an early Diwali after he led the 'pran pratishtha' of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in UP in the morning.
Tombs and monuments up for the grab now
A lot more has undergone a change in Lutyens' Delhi; not the Diwali spirit alone. It transpires that India's heritage monuments are gradually being passed over to the private players. Look at the southern gateway of Humayun’s Tomb under the Ministry of Culture’s “Adopt a Heritage” scheme. It's under the monument’s makeover plan that you have not only a restaurant, a ‘vision document’ of the company entrusted with ‘adopting’ the 16th century complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site but also proposes a café atop the western entry gate. The restaurant and the café will be accessed by elevators installed abutting the historical structures. And there’s more: a gaudy sound and light show on the tomb’s western façade; and special events and private dining in the gardens.
When a private player with little experience in conservation came forward to “adopt” the Red Fort in 2018, it was claimed that it would change the entire culture. Since the founder of the company that was given the contract was closely associated with the powers that be, it became an added qualification. In March 2024, the group, an off-shoot of a foundation, was also given by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Humayun’s Tomb, but also the Purana Qila, Safdarjung’s Tomb, and the Mehrauli Archaeological Park. The ASI has signed 19 MoUs with corporate entities, covering more than five dozen monuments across the country, including the Qutub Minar, the Elephanta Caves, and the Sun Temple of Konark. The idea was first floated by the Ministry of Culture scheme to put Delhi’s most renowned monuments in the care of a private foundation to save money from the government. But it ended up in making these monuments places of rich and fine dining clubs.
