VHP president Shri Ashok Singhal appealed to all political parties of the country including BJP, Congress, the UPA and NDA constituents, to make their stand clear on the Ganga. Talking to mediapersons in New Delhi on March 29 he said the Indian civilisation of rivers must not be allowed to be turned into a civilisation of tunnels.
“The Congress Party in power at the Centre and BJP in power in Uttarakhand and their other coalition partners in the UPA and the NDA must now openly spell out their respective policies on the hydro-electric projects being constructed on the Ganga in Uttarakhand and clarify their stand as to whether they want to save and bail out the Ganga or under the ploy of generating electricity they want to snuff her out and exterminate inside the concrete concentration tunnels. Ours is a famous civilisation of rivers and we must not allow it to be turned into a civilisation and culture of tunnels,” Shri Singhal said.
He said one and all must understand that power could be generated through alternative methods and resources as is being done in other parts of the country, but in spite of all our combined technical and scientific tricks and skills being employed, we cannot bring back Goddess Ganga that took so much of penance on the part of Bhagirath to fetch Her to planet Earth.
“In all probability, the hydro-electric projects on the Ganga, instead of being power generation units have become more of goldmines for vested interests in the government and administration and also among the technical experts, advisers and contractors. That is why, in a mindless manner and also contemptuously setting aside the sentiments of the people attached to the Ganga, new projects are being brought up daily to arrest the nonstop flow of the Ganga. Now it seems the governments are lifeless mechanical entities devoid of any heart and sensitivity. They are up to the evil design to kill the Ganga by depriving her of her natural course and instead taking her through tunnel coffins. Shall the society stand a mute spectator and witness to the daylight murder of the Ganga? The society must devise a strategy to bail out and save the mother Ganga,” Shri Singhal said in a statement issued in New Delhi.
He said the millions of devotees who converge on the Ganga during the Haridwar and Prayagraj Kumbha Melas and the Gangasagar Mela represent the live example of the deepest deference and faith with which the people of Bharat hold the Ganga. Without any propaganda and invitation, these people in their millions come, defying all hardships during their long journeys, to have a holy dip in the Ganga. This feature replicates throughout the 2525 kms length of the Ganga at many places the whole year round between Gangotri in the Himalayas and the Ganga Sagar in the Bay of Bengal. The Ganga is the soul of our nation. Ignoring it amounts to ignoring the devoted Hindu society, he added.
“The saint fraternity and the devoted Hindu society gathered on the banks of the Ganga during the Haridwar Purna Kumbh want that the governments must declare scrapping of all these hydro-electric projects on the Ganga with immediate effect. The saints and the national society would under no circumstances allow the mother Ganga being sent to the gallows. We urge upon all the MPs, MLAs and other representatives of the people who come from the Ganga basin areas between Gangotri and Ganga Sagar to make substantial efforts inside and outside the legislatures, at their party fora and other consequential fora to passionately advocate the case of Mother Ganga and about our national imperative to save Her from extinction,” Shri Singhal said in the statement.
(FOC)
