By Navaid Hamid,
Nigamanand, the crusader to save river Ganga died after a lonely battle in Himalayan Hospital, the same hospital where Sangh’s soldier Ramdev, who is alleged to have built a vast business empire in disguise of the charitable trusts, was admitted by the Sangh parivar’s administered Uttarakhand Government in Dehradun after a week of his fast against ‘corruption’ seems to have fizzled its charm because of the serious nature of allegations against him and his inability to disclose the assets he owns and his interests in business concerns.
The unknown Sanyasi, Nigamanand, was on the second leg of his hunger strike since February last against quarrying activities in the BJP ruled state of Uttarakhand and had chosen the Gandhian path to attract not only the national media but also the pseudo nationalist’s Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh’s leadership who left no stone unturned to rake up religious sentiments of the masses to polarize them against religious minorities of the nation.
Swami Nigamanand [Photo: rediff.com]
As the river has a special significance in the Hindu religion, Ganga in the past has been on the agenda of the Sangh parivar to garner votes and not for the reason that the sacred river is the source of life for substantial populace of northern India. Most of the Hindu pilgrim centers lies on the banks of long route of Ganga starting from Gangotri to Varanasi. The river being personified as ‘Godess’ is worshiped by the Hindu population and is believed that bathing in Ganga’s flowing waters washes one’s sins besides liberating from the cycle of life and death.
Swami Nigamanand was on the fast for 115 days before he left for the immortal world for the pious reason to save the environment; to stop the illegal quarrying; for shifting of the Stone Crusher from the Kumbh Mela (sacred river festival) area and thus wake up the sangh’s senapati in Uttarkhand.
No Hindutva organization or leader thought it worthy to support the cause of Nigamanad for the simple reason that not only the swami was genuine in his fight but also the culprit was the sangh’s state leadership. Nigamanand’s appeals and fast to death for a pious reason fell on the deaf ears of the sangh parivar. Sangh’s leadership might have not considered it worthy to support Nigamanad as the cause for which he was struggling would not have garnered votes in near future.
Also no leader of worth from the RSS thought it necessary to visit fasting Nigamanand in spite of the race they were indulged in visiting Ramdev, few steps away from the bed where Nigamanad was struggling for his life. Even Art of Living’s Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had not uttered a single word in support of the environmentalist during Nigamanand’s life time.
With his sacrifice the environmentalist sanyasi has become immortal not only for the cause for which he struggled and lost his life but also for exposing the double facets of the Sangh parivar.
(The writer is member, National Integration Council, Government of India and can be reached at [email protected])