In a recent tweet on Twitter (X), Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, the President of the Indian National Congress and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, shared a warm message for the start of the grand Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, a city with deep historical and spiritual importance. This event marks the beginning of one of the world's largest and most respected religious gatherings & the President took this chance to send his best wishes to people across the country.
The Kumbh Mela held at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj is not just a religious event, but also a celebration of India's rich cultural and spiritual history. Millions of devotees, saints & pilgrims come together at the sacred meeting point of the Ganges, Yamuna & the mythical Saraswati rivers, showing the unity and diversity of India.
In his message, He said "My dear fellow countrymen, Today, the grand Kumbh Mela has commenced at the ancient cultural confluence of Prayagraj, the land of the Triveni Sangam. This is a significant festival of India's spiritual and cultural heritage. On the occasion of this holy event, I, on behalf of the Indian National Congress, extend my heartfelt wishes to all the citizens of the nation. For the next one and a half months, millions of people from various walks of life will gather at this traditional celebration. Together, they will break barriers of caste, creed, and class, showcasing India's great culture to the world. Let us all, leaving behind untouchability, discrimination, and superstitions, embrace the eternal values of unity in diversity, spreading the message of harmony, goodwill, fraternity, and mutual love across the nation. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in his book The Discovery of India, described the Kumbh Mela, saying: “In my own city of Allahabad or in Haridwar I would go to the great bathing festivals, the Kumbh Mela, and see hundreds of thousands of people come, as their forebears had come for thousands of years from all over India, to bathe in the Ganges. I would remember descriptions of these festivals written thirteen hundred years ago by Chinese pilgrims and others, and even then these melas were ancient and lost in an unknown antiquity. What was the tremendous faith, I wondered, that had drawn our people for untold generations to this famous river of India?" May this historic and spiritual gathering of the Kumbh Mela be successful, embody the ideals of equality and unity, and serve as a symbol of our nation's cultural strength. This is our sincere wish. Jai Hind" (PR)