Kashi Dham ads in dailies: HT carries Yogi’s opinion, ToI has Union minister’s article

“Men who create history are remembered as legendary. Such men are born once in a century. Kashi is witness to such an unprecedented creation of history. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has achieved what could not be accomplished in a thousand years.”

These are opening lines in an opinion piece by Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath in the Hindustan Times today, about PM Narendra Modi’s inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi which links the river Ganga to the Vishwanath Temple.

Pictures of the temple and PM Modi’s face greeted readers in the Delhi editions of the Hindustan Times, Times of India and Indian Express in the form of two full-page ads. The Hindu also carried a page of the advertisement.

The advertisements, however, were not all. The Hindustan Times had four reports and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s opinion piece on Kashi Dham.

News of the inauguration graced the paper’s front page, which detailed how the corridor was decked with flowers, festive lights and garlands for the inauguration ceremony. A pointer on the first page also informed the readers about a “spotlight” story inside, on the “state of the art” complex that surrounded the temple.

On page 6 of the paper, the article headlined “Sacred site gets mega facelift” detailed all the features, the “years” of work and all the “challenges” that stood in the way of making the Kashi Dham a reality. It mentioned how PM Modi laid the foundation in 2019 and passed the baton to Adityanath, who inspected the project “50 times” over the last two years, the report said, quoting an official who requested anonymity.

This six-column article was accompanied by another report, an account of a devotee who lives near the temple, about how the “PM’s pet project rejuvenated the temple complex”.

On Page 8, again, was a three-column report on how Modi was going to inaugurate the corridor. “Generations will now bow to this achievement,” read the piece by Adityanath on the newspaper’s opinion page.

The Times of India, on the other hand, carried an opinion piece by Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy, which also spoke about the “spiritual and structural rejuvenation” of Varanasi, giving credit to Modi. The piece also spoke about how Mahatma Gandhi was disappointed during his first visit to the Kashi temple, and how the Central Vista project in Delhi would have made Gandhi proud.

The Indian Express carried a photograph of the corridor on the first page, followed by a report on the inauguration on page 7.

The Hindu had a page 1 report on the inauguration. It interviewed architect Bimal Patel who is involved in the Kashi and Central Vista projects, besides being involved in all major projects during Modi’s term as the Gujarat chief minister.