Magsaysay winner Pandey to support swami fasting for Ganga

KANPUR: After taking out a ‘padyatra’ from Delhi to Haridwar from March 9 to 17, environmentalist and

Magsaysay

award winner Sandeep Pandey will launch a campaign in the city during elections to bring the issue of Brahmachari Atmabodhanand, who is fasting for the sake of river

Ganga

, to the knowledge of the government and President to save his life.

On Thursday, Atmabodhanand completed 156th day of his fast.

“If he dies, it will be the second casualty in two years on the issue of Ganga. A third, Swami Punyanand of

Matri Sadan

, Haridwar is ready to go on fast if something happens to Brahmachari Atmabodhanand,” Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey informed TOI on Thursday.

Pandey alleged that in 2011, Swami Nigmanand had died on the 115th day of his fast against illegal mining in Haridwar. Matri Sadan, the ashram with which he was associated, alleges that he was killed by poisoning in the hospital at the behest of a mining mafia.

Swami Gokulanand, who sat on first fast organised by Matri Sadan along with Swami Nigmanand in 1998, was murdered in 2003 in Nainital allegedly by mining mafia. In 2014, Baba Nagnath died on the 114th day of his fast for conservation of the Ganga in Varanasi.

Last year Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand, earlier known as Professor Guru Das Agrawal of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and who served as the founding member-secretary of the Central Pollution Control Board, had died on October 11, on the 112th day of his sixth fast.

Sant Gopal Das, who also started his fast for conservation of the Ganga on June 24, 2018, has been missing since December 6 from Dehradun.

Why is the Narendra Modi government not willing to talk with these saints?” said Pandey. “Even common people seem to be insensitive towards these saints, especially when the idea of nationalism is being given a religious colour,” he added.

“Also, it is inexplicable why BJP which came to power on the agenda of Hindutva, whose Prime Ministerial candidate declared that he got a call from Mother Ganga before contesting election from Varanasi in 2014, and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, which doesn’t leave any opportunity to exploit people’s religious sentiments, are not with the fasting saints,” he questioned.

“Twenty-six years old Brahmachari Atmabodhanand of Kerala, with a resolve to continue the struggle of Swami Sanand, started his fast on October 24 at the same place where Swami Sanand had fasted. He has now completed more than 135 days of fast. Swami Punyanand, also of Matri Sadan, has given up food grain and is on fruit diet, ready to go on fast if anything happens to Brahmachari Atmabodhanand,” Pandey further claimed.

He added that “we have decided to distribute leaflets in this regard on a mass scale throughout the country during elections. In Kanpur, since Wednesday nearly 2,500 leaflets have been distributed,the same will be distributed in other towns and districts,” he said.