Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged people to switch off the lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5 to display the country’s “collective resolve” to defeat coronavirus.
In a video message of over 11 minutes, Modi also askedpeople to maintain the “lakshman rekha” of social distancing by staying indoorsand not getting together in groups during the exercise.
This message was apparently aimed at ensuring that there isno repeat of March 22 evening when people assembled in large numbers in manyparts of the country to ring bells or bang utensils to show their gratitude tothose working on the frontlines during the crisis.
The prime minister told the nation that many people musthave felt alone being at home during the ongoing lockdown but they must realisethat the collective strength of 130 crore Indians is with each one of them.
It is required for the country’s people to experience the”greatness, majesty and divinity” of this shared strength and resolve from timeto time, he said.
Once people everywhere light up lamps or display flashlightsof their mobile phones at their doorsteps or balconies after turning off the lightsat home, it will emerge in this “superpower” of brightness that “we are allfighting with a collective resolve”.
“In that brightness we should resolve that we are not alone.Nobody is alone,” Modi said.
He again emphasised the need to maintain social distancing,saying this is a sure-shot solution to prevent the pandemic.
Modi asked people to keep in their minds the poor, a largenumber of whom have been hit hard by the lockdown, and help them “walk fromdarkness spread by coronavirus to light and hope”.
“In this darkness spread by the coronavirus pandemic, wemust continuously progress towards light and hope. We must continuously striveto take those of us most affected, our poor brothers and sisters, fromdisappointment to hope. We must end the darkness and uncertainty emanating fromthe crisis, by progressing towards light and certainty,” he said.
Modi asked people to think about “Maa Bharati” (MotherIndia) and its 130 crore citizens with their combined resolve, saying this willgive them strength to fight and the confidence to win in this hour of crisis.
Citing a Sankrit shloka, he said there is no greater forcein the world than our enthusiasm and spirit.