In an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur yesterday, Narendra Modi suggested that UP Government supplies more electricity during Eid than Diwali. He said, “Ramzan me bijli athi hai tho Diwali me bhi ani chahiye; Bhedbhav nhi hona chahiye (If there is electricity during Ramadan then it must be available during Diwali too; there shouldn’t be any discrimination)”. The PM also said “Gaon me kabristan banta hai to shamshaan bhi banna chahiye (If there is a ‘kabaristaan’ (graveyard), there should be a ‘shamshaan’ (cremation ground) too.”

However, the official stats that have been put forward by some senior journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai from India Today, Pankaj Jha from ABP News and by the Chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation Shailendra Dubey contradict PM Modi’s claim. These tweets claim that according to official statistics, the power supply on Eid (6 July 2016) was 13,500 MW while the power supply on Diwali (28 Oct to Nov 1, 2016) was 15,400 MW per day with a 24 hours supply on all 5 days. These statistics clearly show that not only was the power supply not deficient on the days of Diwali, but in fact was more than Eid.

Also, even though Uttar Pradesh remains a power deficient state, according to official statistics of UP Power Corporation quoted in a report by Business Standard, the power generation in UP under Akhilesh Government has grown by over 100% from 8500 Mw in 2011-12 to 17,500 Mw in 2016-17 and the power cuts have reduced from 14-16 hours to 6 hours.

Meanwhile, more people have responded to PM Modi’s communal statement and we have combined a couple of video responses in the following video.

Two video responses to Narendra Modi's communal statement in BJP's rally yesterday. Do watch. Posted by Pratik Sinha on Sunday, February 19, 2017

It is unfortunate that Narendra Modi resorted to a strategy of communal polarisation while being the Prime Minister of India and having come to power with the slogan “Sabka saath, sabka vikaas”.

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