Kanwal Sibal asks 'Why?' as Shashi Tharoor professes love for Urdu 'Happy Diwali' greeting

On November 14, people around the world celebrated the festival of lights -- Diwali with politicians across party lines wishing the countrymen on the auspicious festival. On Friday evening, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to wish people ‘Jashn-e-Chiraagh’, using the image of a TV anchor. Tharoor said the anchor has come up with an "Urdu greeting for Diwali — “Jashn-e-Chiraagh Mubarak!” I love it. Spread the light!"

'Why love it?'

Reacting to this, Former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal who is the brother of Congress leader Kapil Sibal questioned the need to change the form of greeting and have an Urdu version? Responding to Tharoor, Kapil Sibal's brother said, "Why love it? Deepawali has a meaning rooted in civilisational consciousness. Jashn-e-chiraagh has no such connotation."

Soon after Tharoor posted the tweet, several netizens realised that the image being used by Shashi Tharoor was morphed. However, the anchor Sahar Zaman said that it was not Tharoor that had morphed the image and shared it on Twitter, but it was her who had decided to use the image to wish her family and friends on “Jashn-e-Chiraagh”.

Ayodhya lights 6 lakh diyas to break record

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday went all out in marking the homecoming of Lord Ram to this holy town the mythical event in 'treta yug' on which the festival of Diwali is based. Along the way, the organisers broke a world record. As dusk fell, volunteers lit up over six lakh earthen lamps lined up on the Saryu riverbank.

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A team from the Guinness World Records was present to see if it made it to their book. Hours later, team leader Nishchal Barot gave the final count as 6,06,569 'diyas', telling PTI that it was the largest display of oil lamps in the world. An organiser said about 8,000 volunteers, drawn from a local college and NGOs, were involved in the feat.

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