Yogi Adityanath applying ashes of Holikadahan as tilak during 2022 Holi celebrations is shared with a false narrative - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 29, 2022
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath applying the ashes of a dead soldier on his forehead. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Yogi Adityanath applying a soldier’s ashes as tilak on his forehead.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows Yogi Adityanath applying the ashes of Holikadahan as tilak during the 2022 Holi celebrations in Gorakhpur. The Gorakhnath temple has been following the tradition of beginning the Holi festival after Holikadahan and applying the remains of Holika’s ashes as tilak on the forehead.  Yogi Adityanath, who served as Goraksha Pithadhishwar in the Gorakhnath temple from 1996 to 2019, has been following this tradition for a long time. Yogi Adityanath in the video was not applying the ashes of a dead soldier on his forehead. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, the same video was found tweeted by the ‘Bhagwa Kranthi Sena’ national president Dr. Prachi Sadhvi on 22 March 2022. Prachi Sadhvi tweeted it as the visuals of Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath following the age-old tradition of applying Holika’s ashes as tilak during the Holi celebrations. Reporting the same, a few local news channels have also published videos on their social media pages. They can be seen here and here.
हमारे सनातन की परंम्परा है होलिका की राख ठंढी होने के बाद उसे माथे पे लगाते हैं 🙏🚩 @myogiadityanath जी pic.twitter.com/G8gldCeTHl
After the BJP’s victory in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections, Yogi Adityanath celebrated the Holi festival along with people in Gorakhpur. The Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur has been following the tradition of beginning the Holi celebrations only after Holikadahan and applying the Holika’s ashes as tilak on the forehead.  Yogi Adityanath, who served as Goraksha Pithadhishwar in the Gorakhnath temple from 1996 to 2019, has been following this tradition for a long time.
A few visuals from Yogi Adityanath’s recent Holi celebrations in Gorakhpur can be seen here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post shows Yogi Adityanath applying Holika’s ashes on his forehead, not the ashes of a dead soldier.
To sum it up, in this video, Yogi Adityanath is seen applying Holika’s ashes as tilak, not the ashes of a dead soldier.