By IANS
Lucknow : Hoping to rally its supporters and various factions, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will next month launch a 99-day ‘save Ganga’ tour from Gangasagar where the river merges into the sea all the way up to its source in Gangotri.
One of the high points of the campaign will be on Feb 17 when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani and RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan will participate in a special yagna, or fire ritual, in Varanasi.
Advani is also expected to address a rally on the banks of the river on the day.
Hindu clerics, including the four Shankaracharyas, yoga guru Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as well as Ramjanmbhoomi Trust president Mahant Nritya Gopal Das will join the Ganga Sanskriti Pravah Yatra.
“The yatra is a part of the Ganga Mukti Abhiyan taken up by us as a mission to save the Ganga from further degradation,” national secretary of the RSS outfit Ganga Mahasabha, Acharya Vishnu, told IANS over the phone from Varanasi.
He said “gross neglect and rampant corruption” at all levels in different state governments was largely responsible for the unabated pollution of the country’s most sacred river.
“We have reason to believe that billions of rupees have been pilfered in the name of ridding Ganga of pollution; this campaign is aimed at exposing this as well,” he added.
From Varanasi, the yatra will proceed to Allahabad, Kanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Rishikesh and move upstream to Devprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi and finally Gangotri.