-By GlobalBihari bureau
Haridwar: Water activists, educators and politicians cutting across the party lines, gathered from different parts of the country to express their solidarity with a young seer, Brahmacharini Padmavati, at Matri Sadan on the banks of river Ganga, here on January 5, 2020.
Brahmacharini Padmavati,who has vowed to take forward the unfinished mission of late Professor GD Agarwal, one of India’s foremost river scientists, is on an indefinite fast till her six demands related to holy river Ganga and Professor Agarwal are not met by the government. Though she refuses to speak about her antecedents, informed sources said she hails from Bihar.
She talked to senior journalist Deepak Parvatiyar in a detailed interview:
Interview of Brahmacharini Padmavati
It is more than a year now when one of the most respected river scientists Prof. GD Agarwal aka Sanand Swami laid down his life for the sake of the Holy river Ganga. He had fasted for 111 days, avoiding food and surviving just on lemon water and honey. He was hopeful that the government would meet his demand of a separate legislation for Ganga to ensure it’s purity and incessant flow. But that was not to happen and towards the end he had stopped the intake of water and died which many now claim to be a murder.
Water activists gathered here said they were dismayed with the government’s cold treatment to Prof. Agarwal and were aggrieved that they could not save his life.
Spiritual guru Swami Shivanand Saraswati and founder of Matri Sadan too believes that his more illustrious disciple, Prof Agarwal — who had studied in USA, taught in IIT and was the first member secretary of India’s Central Pollution Control Board — was murdered and has demanded a probe. Watch Swami Shivanand Saraswati’s interview to Senior Journalist Deepak Parvatiyar here:
Interview of Swami Shivanand Saraswati
Professor Agarwal had chosen his spiritual guru Swami Shivanand Saraswati’s ashram, Matri Sadan, on the bank’s of river Ganga here as the venue of his agitation. In the past too Matri Sadan had seen the sacrifice of swami Nigamanand Saraswati, (2 August 1976 – 13 June 2011), often referred to as Ganga Putra Nigamananda, who went on a hunger strike on 19 February 2011 to save Ganga from pollution caused by illegal mining and died on the 115th dau of his fast. He was born in Ladari, Darbhanga.
Noted water activist and Magsaysay and Stockholm Water Prize winner Dr. Rajendra Singh too has expressed his solidarity with Brahmacharini Padmavati.
