On the evening of December 12, Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, dressed in a traditional dhoti, was struggling to make his way through to the famous Dashashwamedh ghat, barely three km from his house.
The ghat was spruced up and illuminated for the Ganga Aarti hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe. The Special Protection Group personnel denied him access, disregarding his VIP pass, and directed him through the common gate. Mr. Mishra, the Mahant of the famous Sankat Mochan temple, was shocked and felt humiliated. The officials soon realised their error and tried to make amends. But Mr. Mishra, miffed at the negligence, refused to participate further. He also boycotted Mr. Modis banquet, for which he was specially invited.
If you cannot manage an event, how can you address the problems of the Ganga and Varanasi, asked Mr. Mishra. He also termed Mr. Modis drive to clean the Ganga cosmetic as there was no engineering solution in place.
If Modi was serious about a fair assessment of the situation and concerned about highlighting Varanasis woes, he should have taken Abe through broken roads and shown him drains. Not the Aarti, Mr. Mishra said.
Despite many visits by Mr. Modi to his constituency and publicising of schemes, Mr. Mishra said he had not seen any new approach to clean the Ganga.
The Ganga Ministry has come up. But nothing concrete has been done. The same obsolete techniques are at play, like installation of pipes. Indiscriminate medication without diagnosis of the disease can be disastrous, Mr. Mishra said, referring to the numerous proposals slated for Varanasi.
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