Flower pots decorating the road leading to the national memorial complex, or Rashtra Prerna Sthal, in Lucknow, were stolen after it was inaugurated on Thursday. Videos of stealing went viral on social media after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries left Rashtra Prerna Sthal after the inauguration.
Footage purportedly showed people, mostly on two-wheelers, stopping and picking the pots meant to deck the road. In one of the videos, a person was seen carrying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) flag.
A netizen posted a video on X saying, “Don’t miss the man on scooty trying to grab as many pots as possible while holding the BJP flag.” Another social media post read: “Not an uncommon sight in India and explains why municipalities remove flower pots once events end. Ironically, those stealing them are usually not poor but from economically sound households.”
On November 17, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath spoke about a similar incident after a G20 event in 2023, when people driving Mercedes in Lucknow took flowerpots from the venue. “Catching them would have caused a huge embarrassment, so instead, they were shown CCTV footage of the theft,” CM had said. “I saw CCTV footage wherein people are arriving in Mercedes and taking away flower pots kept on the road to decorate the city for the G20 summit. Imagine the price of a Mercedes car and the cost of a flower pot.”
{{/usCountry}}On November 17, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath spoke about a similar incident after a G20 event in 2023, when people driving Mercedes in Lucknow took flowerpots from the venue. “Catching them would have caused a huge embarrassment, so instead, they were shown CCTV footage of the theft,” CM had said. “I saw CCTV footage wherein people are arriving in Mercedes and taking away flower pots kept on the road to decorate the city for the G20 summit. Imagine the price of a Mercedes car and the cost of a flower pot.”
{{/usCountry}}He said if they had been caught, it would have given Lucknow a bad name. “And if we do not take action, then decorations done for the purpose will get lost,” he had said. “We decided to call them and show the CCTV footage. We told them that we lost some of the flower pots. We showed them the footage recorded by CCTV cameras and let them go.”