Ganga activist GD Agarwal’s death: Sadhus in Varanasi claim foul play, demand probe

The spiritual leaders and environmentalists in Varanasi and Haridwar are protesting over the death of Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand Saraswati alias Prof GD Agrawal. They said that it was a setback for a clean Ganga.

Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, a prominent saint of Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Parliamentary constituency, has said that Sanand died at Rishikesh AIIMS on Thursday, October 11, under mysterious circumstances.

“He was fine when the police had forcibly taken him from Haridwar to Rishikesh on October 10 and the environmentalist-saint died there next day. He was on fast-unto-death from June 22 and discarded even water on October 10 after informing Modi through a letter that he would die if major steps were not taken to stop mining and he was insisting on a new law for a clean Ganga, said Avimukteshwaranand, who had conducted initiation ceremony of Sanand in July 2011 in Varanasi.

“Disillusioned of science, Sanand aka Prof Agrawal had met guru Swami Swaroopanand, Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math and Swarka Peeth in Varanasi in 2011. The Shankaracharya asked me to conduct the rituals and accept him as my disciple. Such a learned person and great environmentalist had realised that protecting the natural resources was the only hope for mankind. But he was killed in Uttarakhand,” said Avimukteshwaranand, demanding a probe into his death by a central agency.

DB Tripathi, coordinator of Centre for Environmental Science and Technology, Banaras Hindu University said, “Sanand’s death is a great loss for the Ganga. His death has saddened us.”

“The sacrifice of Sanand is motivating us to wage a war for the Ganga,” said VN Mishra.

Swaroopanand declared in Haridwar that more sadhus would start fasting for the Ganga in the coming weeks. “Sanand’s movement will grow with each passing day. The people across the country will be on hunger strike for a clean Ganga. The Prime Minister and BJP leaders claim that they are concerned for the Ganga but they are destroying it,” said the Shankaracharya in Haridwar.

He said despite his old age and on fast-unto-death for 111 days, the saint was not in bad health when Haridwar administration and police had forcefully put him in an ambulance from his hermitage “Matri Sadan (Mother’s House)” and took to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, where he had donated by body a year ago to use his organs for needy people. The "mother" for Sanand was the Ganga, for which he was on fast and demanding from the Central and the state governments to immediately stop mining on the banks of the holy river and cancel all projects near it that could adversely affect the environment.

Swami Nigamanand of the same ashram had died on June 14, 2011 during fast-unto-death for the same cause. His demands were also ignored at that time.

“We believe the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s apathy killed Sanand. Nitin Gadkari, river development and Ganga rejuvenation minister was aware that the saint would die if he continued his fast. The way the police took him to AIIMS indicated that they wanted him to die as soon as possible”, said Swami Shivanand Saraswati, head of Matri Sadan.

“A central minister had talked to Sanand on phone a few days ago and asked him to discontinue his protest. But when the environmentalist refused, the minister had told him clearly that his demand wouldn’t be met even if he would die”, added Shivanand.

Sanand was a noted environmental scientist of the country, who had taught at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for 17 years. Born in Kandhla area of Muzaffarnagar district in 1932, he had done B Tech in civil engineering from IIT Roorkee and doctorate in environmental engineering from California University.

Before joining the IIT-K, he had served as design engineer in irrigation department of Uttar Pradesh government.

The local administration and police had forcefully admitted him to the Rishikesh AIIMS on October 10 but the saint had refused taking anything there.

Premchand Agrawal, speaker of Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, said, “There may be some hurdles on the way to accepting the demands of a sadhu, who died for the holy river. We had tried to convince him to discontinue his fast.”

The Speaker didn’t elaborate the hurdles that claimed the life of an environmentalist-saint, who could be an asset for any government. A clean and flawless Ganga was an election promise of the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 Assembly elections.

The last letter written by GD Agarwal: