The Bharatiya Janata Party won the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections, regaining power in the capital after 27 years. Amidst this, a video going viral on social media (here, here, here, and here) claimed that Yamuna Aarti was performed at Delhi’s ghats for the first time, suggesting it marks a new beginning with hopes of the city transforming into Indraprastha. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: A video shows Yamuna Aarti being performed at Delhi’s ghats for the first time in February 2025.
Fact: Yamuna Aarti was not performed for the first time recently. The Delhi government held the first-ever Aarti at Kudesia Ghat on 13 November 2015. The viral video was shot at Vasudev Ghat, near ISBT Kashmiri Gate, developed under Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena’s initiative and inaugurated on 12 March 2024. Aarti is conducted here every Sunday and Tuesday. Additionally, we also found multiple old videos of Aarti at Vasudev Ghat. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we performed a Google keyword search on Yamuna Aarti at Delhi’s Ghats for the first time and came across multiple news reports (here, here, and here) from November 2015. These reports stated that the Delhi government organised the first-ever Yamuna Aarti at Kudesia Ghat on 13 November 2015 as part of its river-cleaning and tourism promotion efforts. Inspired by the Ganga Aarti in Varanasi and Rishikesh, the event was hosted by the then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who also led the first Yamuna Aarti at Gita Ghat.
To verify the location featured in the viral video, we followed a clue from one of the videos that claimed the site was Kashmiri Gate. Based on this information, we searched online and found several older videos (here and here) of the Yamuna Aarti taking place at the same location. This site has been identified as Vasudev Ghat, located near ISBT Kashmiri Gate in Delhi. Old Yamuna Aarti videos at Vasudev Ghat, along with screenshots and a viral video comparison, can be seen below.
According to reports (here and here), Vasudev Ghat was constructed by the Delhi Development Authority under the initiative of Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. The ghat was inaugurated on 12 March 2024. The Yamuna Aarti takes place at Vasudev Ghat every Sunday and Tuesday.
While we could not independently verify the exact date this video was recorded, based on the available evidence, it can be concluded that Yamuna Aarti was performed in Delhi even before 2025.
To sum up, the Yamuna Aarti was not performed for the first time in February 2025; it was first held in November 2015.
