UP ministers wish Guru Nanak Jayanti months in advance, blame Wikipedia for gaffe

UP Deputy CM. Keshav Prasad Maurya had reportedly posted an image of Guru Nanak with a message, "Sikkhon Ke Pratham Dharm Guru, Darshnik aur Samaj Sudharak avam Shreshta Sangeetagya Guru Nanak Dev Ji Ki Jayanti par unhe Koti Koti Naman." The BJP leader later deleted the tweeted after learning about the mistake.

Screenshot of UP Minister Sidharth Nath Singh's tweet.

New Delhi: Senior ministers of the Uttar Pradesh government who have chosen to stay mum on the raging Unnao rape case got the birthday of Guru Nanak wrong on Twitter. They immediately corrected the faux pax as the birthday falls between October and November every year. This year the world will celebrate the Sikh guru's jayanti on November 23. Guru Nanak Dev was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten revered Sikh gurus. UP Deputy CM. Keshav Prasad Maurya had reportedly posted an image of Guru Nanak with a message, "Sikkhon Ke Pratham Dharm Guru, Darshnik aur Samaj Sudharak avam Shreshta Sangeetagya Guru Nanak Dev Ji Ki Jayanti par unhe Koti Koti Naman." The BJP leader later deleted the tweeted after learning about the mistake.

Sorry for Guru Nanak Ji’s birthday tweet. Confusion happened due to Wikipedia ( enclosed). Apologies to everyone. pic.twitter.com/LteqjXNifs

— Sidharth Nath Singh (@SidharthNSingh) April 15, 2018

His colleagues Ashutosh Tandon and Brajesh Pathak also deleted the similar posts later. Sidharth Nath Singh, the state’s cabinet minister for medical and health owned up the error and issued an apology on Twitter. However, he blamed Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, for the goof-up and attached a screenshot of the article link where April 15, 1469 was mentioned as the birth date. The gaffe took place after UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Saturday had attended an event on Guru Gobind Singh where he highlighted the 10^th Sikh leader’s efforts to empower the weak and untouchables.