A day after the Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Satya Pal Singh asked the people to desist from immersing ashes of their deceased near ones in Ganga while unveiling a string of projects under Namami Gange programme in Haridwar, some members of the religious fraternity have reacted strongly, dubbing him an atheist and an indecent person and also an ignoramus of the spiritual culture of the land. In a meeting held at Jairam Ashram on Wednesday, the seers demanded his removal from the Union council of Ministers. Ganga Mahasabha has also slammed the Minister for saying that the ritual of immersing ashes of the deceased has been going on sans sanction from any scripture.
Launching a scathing attack on the Minister, the head of Jairam Ashram Brahmswaroop Brahmchari said that a follower of Arya Samaj, Singh is against the tradition of worshipping the gods through idols. “This is what prompted him to debunk the tradition being followed by the Hindus for ages. The people of the holy city should not take such a derogatory statement lying down and take to the streets to vent their anger,” he said. A Congress leader who contested unsuccessfully from Haridwar constituency in the Assembly election held earlier this year, he said that the BJP has scant regard for religions. “It just uses it to tickle people’s emotions to garner votes,” he said.
Mahamandaleshwar Arjun Puri echoed the same sentiment and called for action against the minister for denigrating the culture of the land.
The Ganga Mahasabha has also strongly condemned the ‘anti-religious’ statement of the minister, saying that the minister did not have even rudimentary knowledge of what the Hindu culture stands for, the heritage and the traditions associated with it. The senior officer bearers of the outfit demanded his removal from the Union council of Ministers for his frivolous statement.
BJP has also joined in the criticism of the Minister as a senior leader of the party and former district Panchayat president Ashok Tripathi tore into him, saying that the Minister seemed to have no knowledge of why Ganga had descended on earth. “She came down to give ‘Moksha’. The Prime Minister should immediately take stern action against the minister for having trashed the religious tradition the people have been following since time immemorial,” he said. He further said that his statement is wrong when viewed from the scientific standpoint too. “Research has proved that immersion of ashes does not pollute Ganga,” he said.
President of Ganga Mahasabha Purushottam Sharma Gandhiwadi said that Ganga is being polluted not by immersion of ashes but by sewage drains and industrial waste falling directly into the river.
However, unfazed by the censure raining on him for his controversial statement, Satya Pal Singh affirmed again that he deems the custom of immersing ashes in Ganga a bad tradition which should be dispensed with in the interest of the purity of the revered river. “I am open to discussion and debate with any scholar or saint on the matter. I for one did not immerse the ashes of his father in Ganga. Rather I had him buried. Later I planted saplings over it,” he said.