{"id":321894,"date":"2020-04-05T16:27:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T16:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=321894"},"modified":"2020-04-05T16:34:09","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T16:34:09","slug":"fight-against-covid-19-india-lights-up-lamps-to-support-pm-modis-9pm-9min-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/fight-against-covid-19-india-lights-up-lamps-to-support-pm-modis-9pm-9min-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Fight against COVID-19: India lights up lamps to support PM Modi\u2019s \u20189pm-9min\u2019 call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-321897 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/diyas.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"521\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/04\/diyas.jpg 521w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/04\/diyas-300x260.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tehelka.com\/media\/2020\/04\/diyas-485x420.jpg 485w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 521px) 100vw, 521px\" \/>People across the country switched off the lights and came forward to light diyas, candles, mobile lights and flashlights on PM Modi&#8217;s appeal to fight the darkness spread by COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">People not only observed 9-min blackout but also burst firecrackers and cheered to show their support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video message on Friday urged people across India to switch off lights of their homes on April 5 at 9 pm for nine minutes and light up candles, lamps or mobile flashlights\u00a0to mark country\u2019s fight against the coronavirus outbreak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">He also said people should maintain social distancing and not form groups while lighting up lamps or candles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Several politicians and senior leaders light up candles to show the country\u2019s collective resolve to fight COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">President Kovind with the First Lady and members of the family joined fellow citizens in demonstrating collective solidarity and positivity by lighting candles at 9 PM.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cHe expressed his gratitude towards every Indian for showing resolve &amp; resilience in the fight against COVID-19,\u201d President\u2019s office tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu lauds people of the country for their good response in lighting candles and lamps.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThey have once again re-asserted the country\u2019s steely resolve to fight COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cJoining the citizens across the country, the Vice President of India, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu and his spouse Smt. Ushamma lit lamps at Uparashtrapati Bhavan at 9 pm tonight,\u201d Vice President\u2019s office tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People across the country switched off the lights and came forward to light diyas, candles, mobile lights and flashlights on PM Modi&#8217;s appeal to fight the darkness spread by COVID-19 pandemic. People not only observed 9-min blackout but also burst firecrackers and cheered to show their support. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a video message [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":321897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[574],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321899,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321894\/revisions\/321899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/321897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}