In the annals of the Chronicle of crusades for Mother Ganga, the legendary crusade of Prof. G.D. Agrawal is the priceless heritage that will inspire men and women of ever generation to raise their voice in the support for the movement for cleansing Ganga of all Her impurities.
Vivekanand Jha pays glowing tributes to Professor G.D.Agrawal Sahab, the modern Bhagiratha, for embracing martyrdom for protesting against the degeneration of Ganga into the one of the msot polluted rivers of the country.
‘Cry my beloved Bharat Varsha, thy has none to mop up your tears, for your cry will cease to awaken your own sons and daughters who are drunk today not with the glorious nectar of oriental priceless treasure, but are overwhelmed with aping the occidental superficiality which has come to define their national characteristics today’: Vivekanand Jha. This modern India no more prizes upon Bhagiratha’s legendary tapasaya for bringing Ganga on the earth, but laps up scores of such thugs and charlatans who daily pollute and defile Her, yet publicly make a great show of their deep reverence for Mother Ganga.
In this boisterous democracy, where the voice of sanity often gets drowned by an overwhelming and an overpowering cacophony of dichotomous voices which creates needless sound and fury; the saner voice of those who dare transcend the mediocrity and think beyond, often ends up as a casualty at the altar of humongous ‘mundaneness’ and ‘pedestrian’ mindset which govern the actions and the emotions of the republic. The death of Prof. G.D.Agrawal, is the latest glorious illustration of a man who dared to think beyond, but ended up without there being listeners to his noble and patriotic cause that he espoused so passionately. Will his sacrifice lend strength to the movement of the purification of Ganga , or his will be another sad saga of a brillaint sacrifice for the national cause which will go unsung and un- mourned in the annals of the history of independent India?
The sad death of Mr G.D.Agrawal, in the wake of his hunger strike, which continued for almost one hundred and eleven days, indeed cast a pall of gloom on the right thinking citizens of India, including this writer. Although this writer had no personal acquiantaince with him, yet he knew that this professor of IIT kanpur, was staunchly devoted to the cause of liberating mother Ganga of all her impurities that has come to characterise her in the recent years. Professor G.D.Agrawal, who later became an ascetic, had assumed a new nmae of Swami Sanand, was on a fast unto death in Matrisadan in Haridwar Ashram, staunchly demanding that river Ganga needed to be given the attention that she all along deserved. He was also the member of the Central Pollution Control Board and, therefore, had a greater stake in ensuring the purification of Ganga on a fire fighting mode. He had placed his list of demands for the same with the union government, and finally embraced death when such demands were not met. In fact, his demands were not something profound but contained the legitimate aspirations of the masses that always intended to see that Ganga stands purified. Although the central government wanted him to withdraw his movement, but his adamancy that he would discuss the issue threadbare with no less than a person of Prime minister’s stature, was simply thwarted. The Prime minister failed to honour his wish and finally he left this world with his mission remaining unaccomplished. It was not that great Prof. G.D.Agrawal, an octogenarian, was the first man to have become a martyr at the sacred cause of purifying Ganga. His predecessor for the same cause Nigmanandjee Maharaj, a Maithil too, had sacrificed his life on the same mission.
Swami Nigmanad Mahraj reportedly died in controversial circumstances. He was protesting against the sand mafia and construction of various dams on Ganga, which had resulted in the over pollution of the river. Ironically, while Indian media hysterically obsesses itself with bogus and unproductive news of various types pertaining to politicians, the news of the sacrifice of life by Swamy Nigmanand Maharaj was considered too naive to find its due coverage, unless of course when it had caught the attention of NDTV. No wonder the whole episode vindicates the point that in a boisterous and noisy democracy today, the voice of sanity is hardly heard and given due attention that it all along deserves. Interestingly, the media’s obsession with the sleazy news of Ram Rahim and Honeypreet continued for months, with almost all media–both print as well as electronic—focussing obsessively on that same; however, the media neither had the time, nor the incentive, to even casually cover the news of a little known saint whose determination to lay down his life for the noble cause, hardly resonated with the mainstream media. But then would the national mainstream media ever have given a decent burial to any such news involving Baba Ramdev if he had taken up any such issue with equal intensity? It is worth recalling that how Ramdev’s news of saving his life by disguising as a woman in Ram Lila Maidan during Manmohan Singh regime, formed the pivotal news of all the electronic and print media. Paradoxically, when some known figure or a celebrity takes up any issue irrespective of its implication for public good, the media blows it out of proportion; however, even the issue involving the greater public good, if taken up by the lesser mortals–even though such a cognoscenti as Prof. G.D.Agrawal Sahab be on the forefront–they are outright dismissed as enacting a cheap theatrics to grab public attention. A man like Arvind Kejriwal, who is well known for public theatrics, is feted by the media for all his nonsensensicality, yet someone with as bonafide an intention as Professor G.D.Agrawal dies without himself being heard by the corridors of power. And that Professor Agrawal insisted to share his technical expertise with the the power that be so that the agonising issue of pollution of Ganga could have been averted, regrettably failed to stir the national consciousness even a bit, is a sad reflection of reality of contemporary times. In a bout of frustration, Professor Agrawal had reported to have said that “who would he share his expertise with”? In the same vein, he contented whether he would have to share his expertise with the media which, he felt, had no technical competency to covet his ideas and knowledge. Sadly, even if the 1/10th of the crowd which had expressed deep solidarity with Anna Hazare at Ram Lila Maidain in Delhi, would have stood behind G.D.Agrawal, hopefully he would be still alive today.
However in the absence of the pressure group, Prof. G.D.Agrawal died without his issue catching the imagination of the public at large. Unfortunately, as Anna Hazare’s movement to cleanse Indian polity of corruption like virus, was opportunistically hijacked by Kejriwal, G.D.Agrawal’s voice too was silenced for ever, with chances of opportunists finally stealing with his mantle in the future, remains a grave concern. But, now the moot point is: Will India allow Bhagirath’s legendary penance to bring Ganga for India’s salvation on earth to die its unnatural death, especially with the passing away of one of its noble soldiers who sincerely thought of reviving the river which has almost reached the pinnacle of its decline? With the saner voices getting choked amidst the growing cacophony which seems to overwhelm the polity in the contemporary times, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the institution like Prof. G.D.Agrawal, even though dies thousand times, yet the public consciousness cannot be stirred. Regrettably, the purportedly popular voices of Ramdev and even Pundit Ravi Shankar, being conspicuous by their absence in such noble causes like cleansing of Ganga, it appears that the basic proplem of purifying Ganga will remain as unsolved as ever. Worse still, the government’s allocation to the tune of thousand of crores of money channelised towards purification of Ganga, has hardly yielded any dividend thus far. The committee of experts, as constituted by Uma Bharti, the erstwhile minister of water resources, for cleansing Ganga, even failed to hold its maiden meeting, the prospect of purifying Ganga appears as remote as it was when the purification drive was initially conceptualised with huge enthusiasm. Significantly, even Prime minister, thus far, has failed to live upto his expectations to revolutionse Ganga the way he had promised to his electorate in Benaras before he formed his government in 2014. Jagatguru Shankaracharya of Govardhan Math, says, that if you want to weaken any movement, then go for fast unto death, because then the attention of the nation is focussed on the individuals rather than on the movement. Whereas the same cannot be denied, the question does arise that how should one make his voice heard on a significant issue when no one is listening him? Mahatma Gandhi’s taking recourse to fast unto death at every drop of hat and, that too, every now and then, could stir the national consciousness , because he remained a popular figure across the world.
In contrast, the cognoscenti like Professor G.D.Agrawal who strove to catch the nation’s popular imagination on such an important issue as cleansing Ganga, fails to evoke national sentiment and consequently attains martyrdom for the sake of Mother Ganga.But it is a time that nation should wake up; it is the time that nation should seriously ponder the legendary Bhagiratha’s histroical endeavours to cleanse Ganga and insulate Her from an eventual demise. Will the nation allow Ganga to perish, and let the men like Swami Nigmanandjee and Professor G.D.Agrawal’s martyrdom to go in vain? Even the prime minister should ponder that, ‘should it not have been worthwhile for him to meet Prof.G.D.Agrawal and assure him that his sacrifice would not go in vain’? Even though Prime minister’s time is not easily available because of his stately conduct of duty, yet Prime minister should explain to the nation that how his going to attend the marriage function of the sons of the politicians takes precedence over that of meeting someone who embraces martyrdom for such a noble cause as seeking the revival of Ganga which is the soul of Bharat Varsha? It is highly incumbent upon the prime minsiter to take the nation into confidence now and publicly assure the fellow citizens that his martyrdom will not go in vain. Professor G.D.Agrawal is no more with us but his soul continues to remind the nation that India is increasingly getting detached from its moorings and, therefore, if this trend continues, perhaps none can dare to be another G.D.Agrawal to strive to stir the national consciousness for the issues that remained so dear to the nation once upon a time. The martyrdom of Professor Agrawal is a clarion call to the nation to return to its roots.
