Centuries-old Phool Waalon Ki Sair will not be held this year as DDA ‘denies permission’

The festival was held at Aam Bagh in Mehrauli, where swings, stalls and sports are also set up.

Usha Kumar, General Secretary of the Anjuman Sair-E-Gul Faroshan, a non-profit that has been organising the festival since 1961, said, “Since we faced difficulty in getting permission last year also, we started early this year. We met the DDA in April to get permission to hold it in Aam Bagh, but they said a No-Objection Certificate is needed from the Forest Department. The Forest Department did not respond to calls or messages, so we had the message hand delivered to them. The Delhi government also supported us and attempted to coordinate between different government agencies, but the DDA did not give permission eventually.”

“Till 2023, they were allowing us to hold the festival at Aam Bagh,” she said. “How did they suddenly realise they can’t allow us?”

When contacted, a senior DDA official said, “In 2023, the DDA had received a communication from the forest department, GNCTD, that no non-forest activity can take place in reserved or protected forests without due approvals. The area is Ridge and comes within protected forest. We have given conditional permission subject to compliance of forest laws. Thus, the fact that DDA has not given permission is not correct.

The forest department is yet to issue a comment.

The festival has its origins in the early 19th century, when the Mughal empire was beginning to decline. Prince Mirza Jahangir had fired at the British resident and was exiled to Allahabad. His mother, Mumtaz Mahal Begum, promised that once her son returned she would walk barefoot from the Red Fort to the dargah of Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki in Mehrauli to offer her gratitude.

When her prayers were answered, it is said, local flower-sellers scattered flowers along her route and made floral fans (pankhas) which were offered at both the Kaki dargah and Yogmaya Temple.

From this act grew an annual fair instituted in 1811, bringing together people of different faiths in a syncretic celebration. It was halted during British rule in 1942 and revived in 1962 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, who is also Chairman of the DDA, has attended previous editions of the festival. Last year, he presented the chadar at the Dargah; in 2023, he visited both the Dargah and the temple, organisers claimed. Last year, Leader of Opposition Atishi, then the Delhi CM, had also participated in the festival.

Anjuman Sair-E-Gul Faroshan has also been awarded the National Award for Communal Harmony and has represented Delhi at the national capital’s tableau during the Republic Day parade thrice.