9 Baje 9 Minutes: Holding Diya In Hand, PM Narendra Modi's Mother Joins Nation In Lights-Out Call

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nonagenarian mother responded to the lights-out call given by her son, by holding a diya in her hand at her house in Gujarat on Sunday night. In a video that went viral in a short span of time, the PM's mother, Hiraba, is seen sitting on a chair holding a metal diya in hand for nine minutes after the lights were switched off.

The video showed her sitting on the porch of her house in Raysan, located on the outskirts of Gandhinagar.

The prime minister had on Friday urged people to switch off the lights at their homes and light up lamps, candles or mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to display the country's "collective resolve" to defeat coronavirus.

Gujarat has so far recorded 128 cases of COVID-19, while 11 people have died due to the deadly virus. The overall death toll in the country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 83 and the cases climbed to 3,577 on Sunday after 505 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Millions of Indians across the country switched off lights at their homes and lit candles and diyas or turned on mobile phone torches on Sunday night, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to show the nation's "collective resolve and solidarity" in its fight against coronavirus with this symbolic gesture.

Much before the designated time of 9 pm, people turned off lights at their homes while lamps and candles lit up the streets as people stood in their balconies and at entrance doors in unison. Fireworks, sounds from beating of thalis, conches, whistles and police sirens were heard.

India has been on a 21-day lockdown from March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 65,000 lives globally and inflicted over 12 lakh people since the pandemic first emerged in China in December.